Anomaly: Origin Point
by lolmyster42
Summary: He was a weapon meant to wreak death and destruction across wherever he went. He had no purpose outside of eliminating his targets. He had no free will as far as his creators were concerned. He wanted out.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N- Hey, it's me. **

**So as the title implied but the tag didn't imply this is less a FFXV story (it really isn't. I'm just using it for the setting) and more of a prologue story to my story Anomaly. And while you don't necessarily have to have read that story to understand this one, this is mainly for the people that did, so the ones that didn't won't really get much out of it.**

**That all said this isn't gonna be a long story like I'm want to make. I'm aiming for a solid two chapters here. So less of a story and more of a two-off.**

* * *

**Anomaly: Origin Point**

**Part 1/2**

* * *

**"The Ashen Crow"**

* * *

Altissia was a nice-enough looking place. He would dare to say a beautiful place. The atmosphere enough was wonderful, never even mind the scenery. It was truly breathtaking.

But there were always places like this. Great, sterling cities or sleepy little towns or happy little villages. Every single place he went to had these places. Every single one felt nice beyond words.

It was too bad that every single one ended the same way.

He took a deep breath- though for him, it was completely unnecessary- as he leaned back in the gondola. The driver in front was humming a small tune as some children and tourists riding along with him basked in the sights around them. The gondola itself was slowly rode through water canals that wound through the center of the city, giving great views to the immaculate, shining buildings all around as far as the eye could see. Sometimes they would ride into a more open area full of small plazas connected by overarching bridges. These platforms were always full of people and attractions and stalls, with everybody happily laughing or cheerily playing music.

Where the view really shined was when they would ride through a canal that connected one part of the city to another, with nothing but wide ocean in-between. The canal was raised up so high that it was easy to see almost the entire city just by looking around, and the wide, open sky and shining sun only made it all the more beautiful. The passengers riding along with him had their breath taken away from the grand vista, and he himself had chosen to open his eyes once in awhile to take in the sights. It had even brought a small smile to his face that was completely erased seconds later.

Alas, the gondola ride finally ended at one of the boarding stations The tourists and children had gotten off, while he stayed behind to briefly watch a pair of twin children laugh and toss around a beach ball before sighing and standing upright to get off. He'd only made it five steps off the gondola before somebody approached him.

In the time it'd taken him to take even half a step towards him, he'd already examined every single detail of the man. Dark uniform. A small club weapon. A helmet covering the top of his head. One of Altissia's guards. He'd briefly wondered why he was being accosted so soon before he'd even done anything before the guard stood right in front of him and spoke.

"Um, sir, if I may..." He tried to sound stern, and had even crossed his arms to try and support his authority, but there was a minor tremble to the guard's voice that he could detect. The fact his eyes kept flicking from his eyes to down to his hand didn't help matters much. "Weapons such as that are prohibited on Altissia without express permission or a Daemon hunting license. I don't suppose you would happen to have one or the other?"

He looked down at his right hand. Clenched tightly inside it was a large, curved sword that was completely gray in color. Lining its edge was rows of serrated teeth that gleamed in the large amount of sunlight beaming down on it.

"Ah. That." He briefly shook the sword before addressing the guard's eyes. "I don't have any of those things."

"Oh." Awkwardly, the guard coughed to the side before taking a step forwards. "Then I'm afraid I'm going to have to confiscate your weapon and arrest you."

"Right..." Sighing, his eyes flicked over to the children from earlier with the ball. The twins, some of the other kids, the tourists, and even the gondola driver were all regarding him with curious looks. The guard just looked increasingly apprehensive as he fixed the cold glare of his dark blue eyes back onto him. "Sorry about this, man."

* * *

_There was once a world unlike any other._

_On its own, this world was neither overly unique, nor was it particularly plain. For all intents and purposes, it was a completely average world. _

_Like most worlds, this one particular world eventually have rise to humans. They advanced and evolved as the humans in most worlds are want to do. Industry, cultures, and sciences all advanced and evolved along with the humans who slowly refined every aspect of their societies over thousands of years. _

_But, of course, there were tragedies. Wars, plagues, famines and natural catastrophes seemed to strike this world on the regular at an unusually high rate, even compared to other bleaker worlds. But, surprisingly, the humans of this world managed to persevere through every single obstacle set before them and come out stronger for it. Even though these catastrophes eventually escalated to a level that would have completely wiped out most worlds, the humanity of this world refused to die. _

_Eventually, however, the problem of a shortage of resources emerged; years of strife had not helped the matter. Precious fuels and metals were growing scarce, and it was obvious to all that, eventually in the near future, humanity would starve. Fearing this, they looked to the stars in a hopeful leap of finding other planets in outer space to colonize and harvest in order to sustain the species._

_Alas, this was a fruitless search. This particular world had no other planets in its own solar system. Their technology level was not nearly advanced enough to travel to other whole systems, and even if they did possess such a means, they did not have the resources to attempt such a feat._

_It seemed like a completely hopeless situation. This world had become bleak with despair as humanity resigned itself to a slow death until, thanks to the tireless efforts of multiple collaborative think tanks comprised of the brightest scientific minds humanity could offer, two discoveries were made that could save them._

_The first discovery was irrefutable, undeniable proof of the existence of other worlds. Not mere far-off planets, but other, entirely separate realities entirely localized within their own universes. A multiverse, so to speak. One full of worlds completely different from their own, complete with their own space and time._

_The second discovery was the invention of technology that allowed humanity to travel to alternate universes._

* * *

_Crash!_

"Aw, damn it."

Grumbling muted curses under his breath, the owner of Maagho bent downwards to sweep up the shards of broken glass that resulted from him dropping a glass he'd been cleaning. The aging owner would never admit he'd grown so advanced in years that his body was failing him- he didn't even shake yet like some other unfortunate old-timers. The glasses were just especially slippery. Given that he had set up shop in a small alcove under the buildings above and was surrounded by sea water, it was understandable.

He'd admittedly thought the idea of a making a hidden cafe was cool at the time, but sometimes he really regretted his poor choice in location. But at least the customer clientele kept him going, so it wasn't all that bad. If only he could stop dropping glasses.

Approaching footsteps drew his attention upwards, though he immediately quirked his eyebrow at the lone individual slowly approaching him. A young, pale man completely garbed in tattered, gray clothing that kept his head bowed as he slowly sat down at one of the stools in front of the cafe's bar.

"Er... hello." Clearing his throat, the owner of Maagho smiled widely and spread his arms out wide as he greeted the stranger in front of him. "My name is Weskham Armaugh, and this here is Maagho. Welcome."

Slowly, the stranger looked up and, after brushing the long locks of gray hair away to reveal his thin, angular face, he smiled softly. "Charmed. My name is Cornix." After greeting the cafe owner, he slowly looked around while humming softly to himself. "This place is a bit hidden, isn't it?"

A deep chuckle slowly escaped Weskham's throat. "Yes, it appears so, but I find the quiet rather helps the atmosphere of the cafe. So what brings you here?"

"Egh. Work." Cornix let out a haggard breath as he leaned forwards and against the bar counter. "Gimme the strongest drink you got, please."

"Must be stressful work if you're acting like this," the other man noted.

Cornix scoffed. "You don't know the half of it."

"I see. Well, as I said, this is a cafe, sir, not a bar. And...-" He leaned forwards and slowly scrutinized Cornix's face, who looked on in curiosity, "- to be completely honest with you, I don't even know if you're old enough to be drinking."

"I couldn't tell ya. The age restriction changes wherever I go." The gray-haired male slowly rolled his eyes and sat up in his stool. "Can't even get drunk, anyways. And that stuff never tastes good. Don't know why I bother."

Confusion briefly settled over Weskham's face at the remark, but when he saw it gained no reaction from the other male, he quickly shook his head and reinforced his smile. "Well, uh, I wouldn't really know anything about that, sir, but I have a wide selection of other... choices... if you..."

Weskham's voice slowly cut out as his eyes wandered past Cornix and up the few stairs leading up from the cafe's main floor and to the outer area that lead to the gondola docking area. A moving shape had caught his eyes, and upon narrowing them to focus his vision he saw it was a beach ball that had slowly rolled into view only for it to slowly bounce down the stairs. But his focus was less on the ball itself but the dark stains it had left behind.

The aged man's vision began to tremor when, upon tilting his head to get better light, he'd recognized the dark red stains instantly as fresh blood. When his vision had trailed the blood back to where the ball had come from, he'd felt his chest go tight and his breath hitch when he saw a severed human hand laying on the ground. From the size alone it was obviously a child's.

"Guess I won't be getting anything after all." The voice of the mysterious man snapped Weskham out from his trance, though his blood had run ice-cold when he saw the serrated, bloodied gray sword that was placed on the counter. "Sorry, Weskham."

There was an indiscernible flicker of movement, and the sword was back resting at Cornix's side. In the meantime, Weskham's head had flown clean from his body, and the items, ingredients, and various foodstuffs on the shelves behind him were splashed in blood as his decapitated body fell back against it.

With a blank face and sunken eyes, Cornix stood up from the stool, flicked the blood off his sword, and proceeded to get to work.

* * *

_His first memory was that of a tube. _

_The first "real" memory, in any case. He'd had memories beforehand- or, more specifically, knowledge. Upon becoming a fetus in his incubation pod Cornix had been fitted with various electrodes and diodes all for the sake of transmitting knowledge directly into his mind before he would even be able to leave it. It was a more efficient process compared to learning the normal way. _

_But of course, even that knowledge was the basics of basics. Language. Math. Science, biology specifically. Instructions on how to hold and swing a sword. Information of his own body and the thousands and thousands of various gene therapies, chemical therapies, nanomachine integrations, and cybernetics that made him what he was so that he knew what to do with his body the second he was put in the field. _

_Knowing all of this didn't make him any less confused when he'd turned five and had been flushed out of the incubation tube and onto a hard, cold floor without any warning whatsoever. _

_His first sensations were not pleasant in the slightest. The dramatic shift from the heated liquid of the incubator to the cold air and cold floor. The harsh lights hitting eyes that had never seen light before, right until they'd automatically adjusted and his vision became perfect and ended the pain in an instant. The feeling of liquid being thrown up from his vestigial lungs. The confusion about who he was and where he was. _

_A man- "human", his conditioned subconscious had told him- wearing a white lab coat and a rebreather mask that obscured his entire face. Behind him were two men in black, full-armor uniforms with strange metal things- "Guns", his mind had snapped- and the first thought that came to him was not how to avoid the bullets, but how to examine the barrels to calculate the trajectory of the bullets so he could successfully block them. But then his subconscious had intervened yet again and supplied him with the information that it didn't matter, as his body was too durable to even be hurt by guns._

_But behind those guards was someone else. Not a human. Somebody like him. Another naked, pale boy covered by the remains of an incubation pod. He was more broad-shouldered and muscular than Cornix's lithe form was, and had a head of long, blonde hair and red eyes, unlike him. But like Cornix, he seemed just as confused._

_"Boy." This was said by the man in white, which caused Cornix to look up at him. "Do you hear me, boy?" Silence on Cornix's part, which caused the man to sigh in frustration. "They did upload the educational program to your cerebrum, did they not? Now speak up."_

_"... What is going on?" Cornix's first words. His unused voice had been hoarse and broken. "What... what is this?"_

_"Your designation is Cornix. You are a World Reaper."_

_World Reaper. He did not know what that was. Years later those two words would become the most hated words in his entire vocabulary. _

_"This," the white-dressed man continued, gesturing to the other boy, "is Mikail. He is also a World Reaper. Along with his standard duties, he is charged with killing you should you stray from your own." His covered face turned back to Cornix. "Likewise, should he stray from his duties, you are to kill him. Otherwise you two will be working separately until the time you become obsolete, at which point you will both be terminated and replaced."_

_Both boys' eyes met in a mixture of confusion, apprehension, and fear. Both had the knowledge necessary to process the words the white-dressed man said. Neither were old enough or experienced enough to fully comprehend it. _

_More men in black uniforms approached them, two for each boy. The two that approached Cornix gave him two items: a strange wristwatch with a black screen, and a serrated, curved sword that was larger than he was. Despite this, it felt weightless when he lifted it with a single hand. Mikail, likewise, got a wristwatch, though the sword he had received was straighter, not serrated, and many times larger and broader. _

_"You two will be taken to separate rooms, where you will then be taken to separate alternate worlds," the man in white continued to explain. "You are assigned to completely eradicate the dominate lifeforms of the world you are sent to. Once complete, you are to use the device to contact us so that we may fetch you and evaluate your performance. If you do not complete this task within four years, you shall die. If you refuse upon world insertion, your counterpart shall be sent to kill you. Should you kill your executioner or you both rebel, you both will be stranded in your assigned worlds, where you will die after four years."_

_There was no further explanation afterwards. They had simply been whisked away to rooms containing large, tubular machines. Light had exited from one end of the machine and had created a flat, circular portal that hovered right into the air. The two boys, without any further words, had been shoved right through the separate machines with nothing but watches and swords. _

_They'd completed their assignments in just under a month._

* * *

By the time he was done, Altissia was completely unrecognizable. Most buildings were wrecks of their former selves, the streets and pavilions were completely flooded with seawater and rubble, and the once glistening walls were stained with smoke and blood. And soon enough, the whole of the city would flood completely and be lost to the sea.

"This was one of the nicer places I've seen, too," Cornix murmured. He'd situated himself on an altar that was built near the edge of the city. His eyes were unblinkingly affixed on the city as it slowly sank into the sea. "Of all the rotten luck this world had to be targeted and have me sent to it."

This was as far as his ruminations had gotten before the water right under the altar began to rumble. There was the sound of a titanic splash right behind him, followed by a virtual river of seawater falling on him as the entire altar was shadowed by a great figure.

"Lovely." He hadn't moved a single muscle from the torrent of water that had poured on him, but once it had ended he'd groaned loudly and had shaken his arms to try and dry off the excess moisture. "I made an effort to stay dry during all that, too." He stood up on his feet and slowly turned around. "Who the hell... _what _the hell?"

He hadn't expected a lot of things, but a skyscraper-sized serpent rising out of the ocean and staring down at him wasn't one of them.

Though, "serpent" may no have been the right word. It was certainly shaped like a snake, though he was fairly certain snakes didn't have fish fins the size of houses. The face was certainly more fish-like than snake-like. Even its color; that cerulean blue that blended in so well with the ocean.

"Huh. Neat." With his sword held in his hand, Cornix held his right arm out to his side. "They ain't gonna appreciate me leavin' something like you alive, though, so sorry 'bout this."

His arm had made movement indiscernible to the human eye. To a normal view, it would appear as if the arm was held in a static position as multiple, faded versions of the arm faded in an out around where the original arm was before they disappeared entirely and he completely lowered it back down.

As for the serpent, it had frozen completely stiff following the movement of Cornix's sword arm. upon the arm stopping and dropping, great, vertical blue lines appeared all around the serpent's body and face. Seconds later dark blood flooded out in great geysers out from the fresh sword wounds, and the serpent fell completely apart in a silent roar. The dying pieces fell right into the ocean, while Cornix had already turned his back and was walking away while doing his best to brush the water off of him.

* * *

_It was the tenth world he was coming back from, now. A morbid part of him had considered celebrating it right as he killed the very last person and realized it, but he was too disgusted with himself to try and work up the willpower to do something even remotely close to that. _

_The machine they always used to transport him to other worlds whirred to a quiet halt, and the black-armored guards opened the door to allow him out. They'd stopped escorting him all around the building and had stopped confiscating his weapon after his fifth return. He supposed it was because they "trusted" him enough to move about the building as he pleased, or at the very least didn't deem him a threat._

_Laughable, really, considering he didn't even need the sword to kill every single person on this planet responsible for his creation and all the resulting misery. But he couldn't. _

_The six-year-old wandered through the halls, head held down and hands stuck inside the pockets of pants he'd stolen out of a clothing store he'd demolished. The building itself was a tower: a tower taller and wider than any other building on the whole planet. More of a palace than a tower, really- the upper half, at any rate. The upper half was where all the echelons of this world lived and worked: the government heads and the researchers and the resource managers._

_The lower half was completely devoted to the research and development of World Reapers, and was where he and Mikail lived._

_It wasn't the worst place to live. Privacy was almost zero, but all the amenities and living essentials were more than luxurious. He'd never admit the situation could be worse- that would be the same as admitting he was _content _with the way he was living. He was in no way at all contempt. The best treatment in the world would never erase the fact that everybody in this world was making him go to other universes to wipe out all life on them._

_But none of that meant he couldn't enjoy the basketball court on one of the lower floors._

_"Hobbies" weren't exactly something he had, and honestly he didn't really like basketball that much, but there was something about bouncing a ball off a gray, metal floor repeatedly and throwing it into a hoop that took his mind off of things. Off of his life and things he did and the unending, silent rage he had against his holders. And he'd undoubtedly have nightmares about the billions he'd killed at this point, too, if it were even possible for him to sleep._

_His thoughts were interrupted when the door to the court opened. _

_"Hm?" The clutched the ball tightly in his hand as he watched the lone figure slowly shuffle into the room and close the door behind him. "Mikail?"_

_The other boy jerked slightly, blinking owlishly as he tried his best to shy away from Cornix's gaze as he wrung his hands behind his back. "Hi, Cornix," he greeted. "Did... you just come back?"_

_"... Yeah." In response, Cornix tossed the ball at Mikail quicker than the eye could blink. The blonde boy, of course, caught it with ease. "A couple of games?" Cornix suggested. _

_Mikail gave the ball a contemplative look, and then nodded. "Yes, please. I would like that." _

_And so they played. Played faster than any living organism in the multiverse had a right to, but played nonetheless. It was rare for the two World Reapers to have downtime between worlds that overlapped with one another, but they enjoyed each other's company all the same, as accentuated by the laughing and giggling that was barely heard over the ball being bounced all over the court._

_It was a bit ironic, perhaps, that the two grew to like each other so much despite the fact that they only existed to kill one another should the other misbehave; otherwise just one single World Reaper would have sufficed. But, being in the same position of perpetual misery, they's sought each other's comfort relatively quickly. It wasn't like there was anybody else who would treat them with kindness. Maybe in the worlds they visited, but seeing as they always had to kill everyone, they would never really know. _

_The two boys had nobody but each other. It was far from comfort, but it was better than nothing. _

_"And... score for Cornix!" the gray-haired boy crowed as he threw the ball through the hoop before catching it with a soft giggle. "C'mon, Mikail, you gotta move faster than that. What's the point of having all that muscle if you can't even catch the ball?" _

_Mikail had opened his mouth to respond, but quickly fumbled when the ball had been tossed into his hands once again. He'd even tossed it a couple of times before he dropped it completely. What caught Cornix's eye, however was that, during his fumbling, something else had dropped from Mikail. An object from one of his torn pockets._

_Cornix had tilted his head in confusion when his eyes focused in on the object that had dropped. It was a simple rag doll, with a little mock red dress and black buttons for eyes. Mikail had frozen up when the doll had dropped on the floor, and then had quickly reached down to scoop it up. Afterwards he'd just stared at it silently, and after a full minute of this Cornix chose to slowly approach his friend and tap him on the shoulder._

_"Mikail?" he asked, feeling slightly relieved when the other's eyes briefly flicked to him before going back to the doll. "What's with the doll?"_

_"... It was a girl's," he whispered. "There was... a girl I killed had this doll."_

_"Sure, but..." Cornix let out a heavy exhale. "Mikail, there's always a girl. And children, and old people, and adults that try to fight us but all die in the end anyways. Why- what was so special about this one?"_

_The blonde shook his head. "Nothing, but..." He sighed, and the doll dropped to his side as he looked up at Cornix's eyes. "We've just been doing this for so long, Cornix. They keep sending us out, and we keep killing everyone, and then we just come back and wait and do it again over and over and I just..." He paused, and let out a choked sob as he ran a hand along his face. "I don't wanna do this anymore, Cornix." _

_"Mikail." A stabbing pain went through Cornix's chest at the sight, and he awkwardly rubbed at his arm. "I know it's all bad, but there's nothing we can do. They're not gonna stop. We... we can't stop until we grow obsolete."_

_There was a rush of wind, and great weight crashed into Cornix at a force that would have instantly killed a sturdy man. He looked down in surprise when he saw Mikail burying his face in his chest with his arms wrapped tightly around Cornix. _

_"I don't want to go to another world. I-I-I don't w-want to ki-kill any more people." Mikai's body was trembling fiercely against Cornix's own body, and tears were already flowing freely through his stolen clothing. "It hurts too much. I just want it to stop."_

_"We could just kill them all." Cornix didn't like the sound of Mikail's broken voice at all, and yet the only comfort he could provide was a terrible suggestion and some arms to attempt to comfort him. "Everybody in this world. All the people responsible. We can just kill them all and we'd never be forced to go and hurt others ever again."_

_More sobbing from Mikail. "But then we'd die," he mumbled into Cornix's chest. "I don't want to die. I don't want to kill anymore. I just want it to stop."_

_"... Then there's nothing we can do, Mikail. You know that." _

_It was that statement, the one that really laid out the cold reality of their situation, that really caused Mikail to sob uncontrollably onto Cornix, who was trying and failing to bring any possible relief to the other boy. And while the other's face was twisted in pure anguish, Cornix's own face was twisted entirely differently. His teeth were gnashed together and his eyes widened furiously as silent tears streaked down his own face._

_The fact of the matter was that it would be trivially easy to kill every single person on this planet besides himself and Mikail so they could finally be free of this torture. But that would just eventually kill them. And while Cornix was completely fine with that, having lost all value on his own life a good two dead worlds in, Mikail wanted to live. And that really was the one reason Cornix refused to end it at every moment._

_All these facts complied together along with the sight of his crying friend somehow hurt worse than the feeling he got every single time he finished a world off._

* * *

This city hadn't nearly been as nice as Altissia, nor did it hold out nearly as long. Buildings burned. People laid in the streets dead. In the distant mountains there was a lake-sized goddess of ice, cut completely in half with her frozen corpse displayed across the entire mountain.

His last stop was a large castle in this place. Cornix had calmly walked through the gold and crystal halls, briefly admiring the architecture while cutting down everybody in his path.

Some tried running. He killed them.

Guards and desperate people tried rushing him. He killed them.

A silver-haired boy had tried his best to protect a fair-haired girl who resembled him. Cornix cut him down instantly.

Said girl was reduced to a quivering mess and couldn't even move as Cornix approached, with nothing to protect her but a small, barking dog. They both died.

And in the end, the burning city was far behind Cornix, and his sole focus was the kingdom of Niflheim right in front of him.

* * *

"It's me, your resident genocidal murder you keep around on three leashes to tell you that, surprise surprise, everybody's dead. Again." _Cornix felt his face briefly scrunch up at the multitude of unpleasant thoughts flashed through his mind as he addressed the people in front of him. _"Oh, me? I'm fine, not that you care. I'm not mad. I don't fantasize about killing you all regularly because of the bullshit you put me and Mikail through. That's crazy talk."

_Of course he could never say these things because it would immediately mean Mikail would have to kill him. And knowing him he'd refuse, and it would quickly spiral into everyone but them dying. Then they'd die. _

_It was still nice to dream. And it wasn't like they could read thought unless they hooked him up to a machine. Amazing, really, considering they had practically everything else._

_But as it stood he had to be as respectful as possible to these people no matter how much he wished for their deaths every single day. So his actual tone was much more reserved. "The entire world and all its inhabitants have been purged." He was currently kneeling in a wide room that wood have been empty if it weren't for the thirty spires that nearly reached the top of a very large ceiling, where a human being sat at the top of each. Besides the harsh spotlight being shone down on him and the lights along the spires, the room was otherwise completely dark. _

_The one's he'd had to start reporting to when he'd become a teenager and could be trusted with more "responsibilities". He had a feeling the real reason was that the person who used to report for him didn't want to do it anymore and saw him becoming sixteen as a good excuse. And considering that had been four years ago, it seemed to be an excuse that was holding up well. _

_These people- old men and women that by all rights should have been so ripe in age they should be dead but weren't due to anti-aging technology- merely mumbled to themselves before waving him off. It was the normal ritual he'd gone through ever since he'd had to start reporting. He'd finish, come to the big, tall room, prostrate himself in front of his betters to let them know of his success, and then they'd let him leave. _

_It was an honest waste of time, but he didn't make the rules, and they didn't care._

_So, like always, he left and wandered down the featureless corridors until he'd finally found the door to the room they'd provided him. The door only remained open for a second before it closed right behind him, after which he'd groaned and pressed his back against the door before sliding down to the floor._

_"Another one down. Another few billions lives ruined. Another dead world." He dug around in his pocket before he pulled out a cloth headband with a metal plate on it. _

_Humming softly, he ran a thumb over the spiral pattern on the front before he tossed it into one of the many piles of junk scattered across the room. Ever since Mikail had brought that doll back years ago he'd made the habit of finding one single trinket from each world he killed to bring back to his room. He didn't know why he did it; he never even looked at them again or even thought about them once he'd tossed them to one corner of the room. _

_Maybe it was because these pieces of junk were the only pieces of evidence that the worlds they'd come from even existed. They were nothing but dried-out husks by the time this world was done with it. _

_"Man..." His head thumped the back of the door, and a ragged hand ran over his face. "Wonder if Mikail's back yet?"_

* * *

Evidently this world had some kind of monster problem.

He didn't know the exact details, nor did he really ever care to ask anybody about it. He just got the gist when he was assaulted by monsters at night when he was going from settlement to settlement, only to cut them down right after. Not really an inconvenience, if he was being honest. Or even a distraction. Mostly just more busywork.

He was pretty sure he'd heard the name Daemon thrown around once or twice, so it was at least nice to put a name of the annoyances he kept fighting. Even if he barely cared enough to remember.

But this empire, Niflheim, it was absolutely full of them. Them and guards and robots and guard-shaped robots that did not move like robots. He'd found a lot of the things caged, too, so he assumed there was some kind of experimentation going on. Wasn't really that surprising- based on everything he'd seen, this empire was the most scientifically advanced out of everywhere else. Enough at least that it gave him some uncomfortably nostalgic vibes of home. Or whatever it was he called that black tower he lived in.

However, scientifically advanced or not, they all still died in the end.

"Well, lady, you had a lot more guts in ya than most of the guys I've been murdering, and you certainly had the mouth to back it up." His spree had finally ended in the grand throne room of this empire. The emperor himself laid in pieces on his golden throne, while Cornix sat right in the middle on top of the dead body of a fifteen-foot god of fire. He had a lance in his head with the dead form of a woman impaled at the end of it. "Too bad I can't make exceptions for anybody. Give ya credit for tryin', though."

He lazily tossed the lance away, and noted the loud clanging of it hitting the cold, metal floor before taking a breath and resting his head against his palm.

_Clap! Clap! Clap!_

He'd only managed to close his eyes for a few moments before they snapped open upon hearing clapping. "In my experience, it's usually only the really pretentious know-it-alls that come in with the slow clap routine." His head tilted slightly downwards as he looked forwards at the man entering the throne room and walking straight towards him. "And holy hell, by the looks of you I'm right on the money."

The person in question was a man with maroon-colored hair and black... possibly robes, now that Cornix took a closer look at his garb. Or possibly just a really elaborate jacket, as he managed to see pants. Maybe a really big scarf?

And he always thought he dressed terribly.

"My, my, my!" The slow clapping ceased to a halt, and the man's hands fell to his side as he stopped a short distance from Cornix and his cooling seat as he whistled and looked around the room. "I had heard rumors of cities going completely dark, but I hadn't put any thought towards it. Yet what do I find when I wake up than Niflheim completely devoid of life all around me!" He smiled as he slowly spun around in a single circle while raising his arms slightly. "The entirety of the empire and its citizens dead, the Daemons all around vanquished, the emperor himself cut to ribbons on his own throne-" He put on a mocking face of remorse as he looked up, "- and oh, dear Ifrit, the Infernian. You even went and did him in, too."

"Was that this guy's name?" Cornix tapped a foot against the body. "Yeah, you'd be surprised how many fire gods are named Ifrit."

The man's eyebrow quirked upwards in confusion for a second before his smile returned. "Er, quite. In any event, I simply must ask who would be so daring as to commit such a tragic and horrifying atrocity onto the good people of this fine empire."

"Kinda rude to be askin' for a name without introducing yourself there, chief."

"Ah, of course! Where have my manners run off to?" He quickly took the black hat off of his head before he lowered himself into a steep bow. "Izunia! Ardyn Iz-"

It was as far as he'd gotten before Cornix had went from sitting atop Ifrit's corpse to standing right behind Ardyn with his hat in his hand. Ardyn, meanwhile, collapsed to the drown with a large slash through his midsection that was bleeding a black fluid.

"Yeah, don't care," Cornix airily stated as he examined the hat in his hand before scrunching his face up. "Egh. Substandard hat." He promptly tossed the hat behind him.

And that would have been the end of that if it weren't for the fact he heard shuffling right behind him, which had halted him mid-step.

"And you have the audacity to call me rude..." Cornix had to suppress an annoyed groan as he turned around to face the man he'd just killed. Said man was slowly putting his discarded hat back on as the wound on his chest healed. "Terribly frightening speed you have there. I daresay I would have been killed instantly if I were any normal man." Ardyn smirked at Cornix, and his light-green eyes briefly flashed yellow. "Fortunately, I remembered that I'm immortal."

"That a fact?" Grinning, the sword in Cornix's hand spun completely around twice before it made a stop, with its point aimed straight at Ardyn. "You're in luck! Immortality's my specialty."

Ardyn's own smile faltered slightly, and his eyes creased ever-so-slightly. "Is that right? I should have to see that for myself." There was a flash of light, and suddenly dozens ethereal, red swords of various shapes and sizes had appeared all around Ardyn's form and began circling him. "If you're up to it."

"Ooh. Haven't seen anybody here pull that trick yet." The fingers holding onto the hilt of Cornix's sword twitched. There was the sound of a revving engine, followed by the teeth all along the blade's edge beginning to rotate at such a dizzying speed they became a solid blur. "Alright, Mr. Immortal. You're on."

* * *

_The Black Iron Coalition. It was the name of the government responsible for the entirety of the human species in this world. It was the name of the people responsible for Cornix's creation, as well as the creation of every other World Reaper._

_Cornix did in fact read. Rarely. Surprisingly a lot of worlds he went to shared the same language as this one, and even the same written word. That said, he didn't really ever have much time to spend with books from other worlds since exterminating them took up most of his time. Didn't mean he wouldn't sneak back the odd book or two every few worlds- but in terms of broadening his horizons, it wasn't much._

_Fortunately, his room did have a terminal. There was no browser feature to the main information databases that he assumed the rest of the people on the Black Iron World used, what with it only being directly wired into a local database with no wifi uplink options, and it was a almost guaranteed certainty that all his actions on it were monitored. But there were some bare-bones essential pieces of information regarding this world, its people, and government, and one day Cornix had grown bored. So he'd looked at what the terminal offered._

_Surprisingly, there was also a journal program for him to write his thoughts out. Maybe a single ounce of kindness provided by his handlers, or a way to help him stay sane so he didn't break and make them grow a new World Reaper. He never touched it._

_The near-collapse of the whole of humanity following the resource shortage but right before the invention of universal travel had sparked many wars across a world that had once held many nations. The surviving governments had pooled their minds and resources together to invent the universal travel technology, which had brought together what embers of humanity remained under one single government: the Black Iron Coalition. _

_Structurally speaking, it was an oligarchy with the power of differing forms of government, science, and industry split between thirty people. These people were, of course, the exact same people that had come into power following the creation of the Black Iron Coalition. It ran well enough; by that, at least the world ran smoothing and its people were alive and happy. That was all based on assumptions, though, as Cornix had no idea what life for normal civilians was like outside the tower. That data simply wasn't on the terminal. _

_There was, of course, a police force, though that may have been understating what it actually was. Armies of soldiers, armies upon armies of war machines and automatons, warships, weapons of mass destruction, and anything else that could conceivably used to kill. This was all to maintain order in their own world, however. Other universes and their own forms of protection and powers were too unpredictable due to their wildly varying differences between one another._

_This was what World Reapers were made for._

_World Reapers. Artificial beings made for killing whole worlds. Disposable once stronger generations were made. In the beginning they had been so weak that hundreds of thousands were created just to swarm one single world to take it over. Nowadays they only needed two. _

_Silently, Cornix closed out of the terminal, and then leaned back against his chair while kicking his feet up on the desk it laid on. Didn't answer all his questions, and left about a million more. But, these questions were eventually pushed to the back of his mind as he finally got up and left his room to search for Mikail._

_At the end of the day this was nothing but a passing interest, as he had no actual reason to care about this world or anything in it unless it had something to do with him._

* * *

"Ah, come on, Ardyn! You can't give up now! We just hit five digits!" Cornix crouched down on the black-stained metal floor, his sword resting on top of his shoulders as a manic smile spread over his mouth. "Heads up, score is Cornix: ten-thousand, and Ardyn: love." The smile dropped. "Seriously, though, how many times do I gotta kill you? I don't have all day here."

It wasn't his first brush with killing something immortal, but usually there was some trick to what he was trying to kill. Some core inside their body or some outside object that was sustaining them until it broke, or sometimes it was as simple as that if you killed them enough they eventually died permanently. Different universes had different rules for this kind of thing, and Cornix had grown accustomed to all of them. Some were just more annoying than others.

And Ardyn here was really testing his quickly-exhausting patience.

As he was now, the previously coy and mocking man was reduced to a panting mess taking a kneel on the ground as black mist and fluids leaked out of the multiple wounds across his body, as well as his mouth and eyes. His once-green eyes had turned a permanent yellow, and the whites had been stained black. His own features had gone from playful to worried and hateful as he stared up disbelievingly at Cornix, who stared right back at him while slowly bouncing the serrated sword on his shoulders.

"Why... are you doing this...?" Ardyn asked between large gulps of air. "Was it Insomnia and the wretched Caelums who put you up to this? Has Insomnia grown so weary of my existence and the threat of Niflheim's empire that they sent somebody to wipe us all out?"

Cornix shook his head. Based on Ardyn's frustrated reaction, it hadn't been what he was expecting.

"Nah, nothing like that, though I am gonna have to visit that Insomnia place sometime after this. No, nobody you know of sent me." He quickly rose to his feet and paced back and forth in front of Ardyn, all the whole slowly and lackadaisically swinging his sword. "Ya see, Ardyn, I have but one goal. And that goal is the complete and utter extinction of the dominant lifeforms of this planet. That means one-hundred percent of all humans, a hundred percent of these Daemon things, too, which is a real pain in the ass, these big god things..." He stopped and looked down at Ardyn. "And you, too. You weird... half-human and half-Daemon thing or whatever the hell you are. Don't know, don't care. All I know is that you and everything else in this world's gotta go."

The same emotions that played across Ardyn's face were emotions Cornix was accustomed to seeing whenever he told somebody he was there for the sole purpose of killing the whole world. Shock and confusion, anger... fear, especially if they knew he could do if after fighting him. Like this instance.

Ardyn's head dropped, and his breathing became more ragged as black fluid poured out from his eyes. He looked back up at Cornix, face wracked in hopelessness and his shoulders limp. "Why?" he asked in a choked whisper. "For what _possible_ reason could you have for causing such an act of barbarism?"

"Ardyn..." Cornix crouched back down to his level and gave him a sympathetic look. "Listen, man, I'm not gonna lie. The real reason is way more disappointing than the one you're probably thinking of. You're better off dying not knowing."

And then he stabbed the sword forwards and through Ardyn's chest, causing him to roar out in pain as more black fluid escaped his broken body.

"Fuck it, we're going to a million."

* * *

_"Dude, Mikail, this game cheats."_

_A low hum escaped the other male sitting across from him as he held up small, red disk. "Have you considered the possibility that you're quite poor at the game?" he asked right before dropping the disk._

_"Me? Terrible?" A scoff escaped Cornix as he held up a black disk. "Not likely. I'm great at everything." He dropped the disk._

_"Mm-hm." A small smile spread across Mikail's lips as he dropped a second disk. "Then why have I just won?"_

_"Eh?" Cornix's eyes bugged out of his head as he bent forwards the examine the vertical game board. "What the- nah, nah nah-nah-nah- there-there's no way."_

_"It's four in a row, Cornix."_

_"Fffffff..." Huffing, Cornix turned in his seat and crossed his arms. "Man, whatever." _

_This caused a small laugh to come from Mikail as he tilted his head to the side and smiled, while Cornix had jumped up from his chair and went to the edge of the deck and placed his hands on the railing to steady himself._

_Connect Four truly was the bane of his existence._

_The open-air observation room was a place the two frequented often when they had a lot of free time on their hands. Usually it was just to play games that were either sparingly provided to them or, more commonly, board games they'd found from other worlds. This was the most recent board game, and already Cornix hated it with a burning passion. _

_"Ah, Cornix. Forty years we've been alive, and in all that time you've yet to be the first one to win any of our games." _

_"Forty years." Frowning, Cornix looked down at the golden railing he gripped. He moved some of the long, gray hair with tips of dark blue at the very ends to look at the reflection. The face of a twenty-year-old stared back at him. "Right." He looked behind him at Mikail. "There even a point to counting anymore? We're stuck lookin' like this 'til we die, you know."_

_"Why would we not count our years?" Mikail asked. "How else would we keep track of how long we've been alive?"_

_"Don't even know if that makes it worth it." Cornix rolled his eyes, and then turned back around to look at the view before him. _

_The landscape before him, and really just the whole of the planet's surface, was entirely covered with black buildings of various sizes and shapes as far as the eye could see. Most of the light that gave them visibility came from streetlights and buildings windows; looking up at the sky revealed a completely cloudless canvas of dark blues and purples dotted with millions of dots of lights and bands of an orange corona stretching randomly across it all. _

_There had been a sun, once upon a time. But humanity had broken it in an effort to solve the energy crisis that had came with the resource crisis. All that remained of the once-great star was leftover solar emissions._

_How _fortunate _that thermal technology existed so nobody froze to death._

_"So. how was your last gig?" Cornix questioned as he pushed off the railing and returned to his seat across from Mikail. _

_It was Mikail's turn to frown. "You don't want to continue our game?"_

_"Sure. Later. Some other game." Detested blue eyes snapped to the Connect Four board. "_Any _other game," he emphasized, "but I'm more worried about you than anything else."_

_"I see." The blonde male's face grew weary, and he slouched slightly in his seat. "The same old routine. This was one of the more advanced worlds. They had plasma weaponry."_

_"Ooh, cool. Any robots?"_

_"Very big and very explosive."_

_"As they should be." Cornix looked to the side and tapped the glass table. "Everybody just had boring-old swords where I just came back from. Didn't even have any magic baloney or elves or cat-eared people or anything places like that sometimes have." _

_"... Cornix-" The addressed male regained focus on Mikail, "- when we were born, they said we would be... retired when they made superior World Reapers." He leaned back in his seat and looked up at the sky. "I often wonder just how long we will have to endure this life. This... infinite cycle of torment we're forced to deal out to others." He breathed out softly, and his arms fell to his side. "You must wonder, too. You hate it as much as I do."_

_"Nah, I love killing billions of children on a bi-monthly basis. What are you talking about?" His sarcastic remark instantly earned a harsh glare from Mikail, which caused Cornix to shy back in his seat and raise his arms up defensively with a nervous smile. "Jokin', man, jokin'. Sheesh." The corners of his smile lowered as he regarded his friend with a thoughtful look. "They said we'd be disposed of when the next generation of World Reapers comes around," he said, "but that was forty years ago. Not exactly unheard of for it to take this long, but this generation, our generation, is the first one to make it so long with nobody in that generation dying." He shrugged. "Makes me think. Maybe they don't need to improve the World Reapers any further, you know? What's the point when we have such a perfect record? Making us stronger just seems pointless."_

_"So... you think we're the last generation? That they will halt progress?"_

_"Unless we run into a world full of something that can kill us, yeah," Cornix affirmed. "Which is unlikely, considering how far we've gotten without ever being pushed seriously. Couple close times, yeah, but nothing ever life-threatening. So maybe we're stuck doing this forever."_

_Both fell silent at this. It was a grim thought indeed, considering freedom was the one thing that constantly plagued their mind above anything else. The mere thought that they would never be free and would be doing this until the end of time was very unsettling. _

_"Sometimes it makes me think," Mikail continued, "about why they chose to make us World Reapers with so much intelligence. Why they had to make us human. Why they couldn't have just made emotionless ones or make World Reapers without any free will. Why they had to make slaves instead of tools."_

_Slaves. Cornix would admit that word very accurately surmised their positions in life, among others. Slaves. Executioners. Monsters. A whole slew of derogatory terms people screamed at them right before they were killed. Absolutely nothing good at all. _

_"Well, they _did _make emotionless World Reapers once upon a time. Few generations before us, actually," Cornix informed. "Then they became self-aware and went crazy. Now we only have half a moon."_

_To make his point, Cornix pointed upwards, and both their head looked upwards at the broken sphere that floated in space above them, its light dulled due to the state of the sun. One half was completely shattered to pieces and slowly floating away from the larger, intact whole. _

_"Right." Sighing, Mikail looked back at Cornix, the latter focusing on his red eyes. "You ever think about running away?" he asked. "We could just... sneak off to one of the transportation machines. Find a nice world, sabotage the machine and erase the coordinates so they can't find us, or at the very least make them search for a long while. Put an end to all of this once and for all."_

_"It's a nice thought," Cornix agreed. "I mean, without the suppressants they supply us we'd die in four years because of this stupid kill gene they put in us, but... ah, I dunno. What's better? Four years of freedom or an eternity of doing this?"_

_Mikail hummed in thought and traced his finger along the table. "Good point. I'd almost forgotten about that," he admitted. "... I don't want to die, Cornix. Not without making this right."_

_"'Making this right?'" Cornix scoffed. "There's not a force in the whole multiverse that can make this right unless the Creator or Destructor get off their asses and do something about it. Which they won't. You know what they're like." He shook his head. "Face it. There's no taking back what we've done. What they've taken. What they _made _us take."_

_The blonde nodded in agreement. "I know. But I still dream of it." _

_"Quite a feat considering we don't sleep."_

_Mikail chuckled. "You know what I mean." A thoughtful look came over his face. "This world, with its ability to create indomitable soldiers like us. Its miraculous technology-"_

"That was mostly stolen from worlds World Reapers killed," _Cornix thought, though remained silent as he watched on in interest._

_"- that can accomplish any feat imaginable. You've seen your fair share of suffering worlds along with the nice ones we've been to. Worlds where the natural inhabitants can't help themselves for whatever reason." He leaned over the table towards Cornix, and he could have sworn there was a twinkle in his eyes looked on. "People like us. World Reapers. What if we went to other worlds to help instead of kill? Saviors instead of conquerors." He sighed, and then slumped back into his chair. "I know it will never take back what's been done. Not just the worlds we've killed or will kill, but also the worlds that have been lost forever to previous World Reapers. We could help every single world that would ever come into existence at this exact moment forever and it would never make up for it." The hand that had previously laid limp on the table tightened into a fist. "To bring justice to the ones that abused this technology and made everyone suffer for it. To make sure not only them, but anyone who would disturb any universe's peace can never do it again. This is my dream. To spend my life making this injustice right and protecting the multiverse." His fist opened up, and he slumped backwards. "But I can't," he mumbled, "because we're stuck under the thumb of the Black Iron Coalition."_

_Cornix looked down. He'd had his share of conviction filled speeches in his lifetime, albeit mostly towards him. Usually government leaders or resistances going against him for the very reasonable reason of trying to stop him from killing literally everybody._

_Admittedly, he'd heard more conviction from broken generals and fear-filled leaders than what he'd heard from Mikail. Not surprising, considering their whole lives were nothing but oppression. But the difference between all those people and Mikail was that Mikail was his friend. And that, deep down, Cornix wanted the same thing. Or, at the very least, for the both of them to be free, and if not him than at least Mikail. _

_He deserved no less._

_"... It's a nice dream, Mikail." Cornix stretched his arms over his head and stood up from his seat. "I gotta go. Have a million medical routine checkups to do. I'll catch you later."_

_"Farewell, Cornix." _

_"Yeah." They both waved their goodbyes, and Cornix left Mikail to his thoughts at the glass table. It wasn't until Cornix had made it a fair distance away did his head lower in thought as he continued walking forwards._

"Mikail. You're my only friend. The only person in the whole multiverse who's went through this hell with me. The only thing that's keeping me going." _He held out his right hand and slowly traced a finger over the smooth walls. _"I don't care what happens to me. If you didn't exist I would've just run away already and waited for the kill gene to do me in. But you're here, so I can't abandon you. So if that's what you really want, then... you'll get it. I don't know how or when, but someday. Even if it kills me, I'll see that you get your dream and end this suffering. I'll endure this hell along with you right until I find a way out. I promise."

* * *

Being sent into a whole universe wasn't exactly an _accurate _process- that is, the numbers the ones who ran the machines plugged in some numbers and, using some data imagery from various other machines used to peer into that universe, were usually coordinates that lead to somewhere in said universe where the portal would appear. This was made to make sure they didn't send Cornix into outer space, into the molten core of a planet, or a wall. All of which he'd easily survive, but would still be inconvenient.

That said, it still usually boiled down to them plugging numbers in over and over until they found a safe spot to insert him in. Which usually meant he appeared in a completely random spot.

The problem he was now facing was a common one, in that, once he'd destroyed Niflheim, he'd had to backtrack all the way back past his swatch of destruction just to be able to get to the other side of the world to kill that side. Altissia hadn't exactly been in the middle of the world, but it would have saved him a lot of time if he'd went in one direction to that end of the world and just started killing from there so he didn't have to backtrack.

Sue him, he didn't have a map at the time.

But, when all was said and done, he'd made it all the way to the other side of the world while killing everything along the way. Great plains, forests, and town laid barren and dead. A city of light atop a mountains laid waste to flames with slowly dispersing thunderclouds above it. And in the center of it all was a large crater where the body of a giant laid, with Cornix sitting atop the meteor it had held atop shoulders.

"Geez, surprised your name wasn't Atlas or something," Cornix commented as he kicked the meteor under his foot. "Welp, that's you and the old lightning dude down. And that weird giant turtle for good measure, though I'm pretty sure that thing was just a freak of nature. If what people say is right... there should only be one more of you." His dark-blue eyes briefly flashed a brighter blue color before he looked ahead. "And it looks like the only people left are in that Insomnia city. Pretty huge place, too. Might take me a bit longer."

Even from here, miles and miles away, he could see the sprawling city in the distance, though telescopic visions helped out with that. It looked surprisingly modern, too, especially with the standard the rest of this world was providing. It truly was this world's last bastion of life, though. He'd already killed everything else.

"Alright, let's get to it."

* * *

_Very rarely he encountered a world where he didn't feel nearly as guilty as he usually did when he killed it._

_His homeworld that housed the Black Iron Coalition, the Black Iron World, was bad. He wasn't going to argue that. It didn't change the fact that he'd been to some absolutely draconian worlds that were either already dying or so messed up that him killing everything was nothing short of mercy. _

_Medieval worlds with mystical powers where kingdoms enslaves entire populaces. Lords so mad and crazed with power that he'd seen hundreds of thousands of men, woman, and children crucified on crosses on barren land stretching all the way to the horizon. Towns and villages burned to nothing. Worlds where humanity lived and fear and were being actively wiped out already by monsters or demons or other such horrors. Worlds ravaged so harshly by war that Cornix himself barely had to put any work in to end it. _

_Maybe if these were the only kind of worlds he and Mikail were sent to he'd complain a little less._

_"Yeah, this is about right." A long, drawn-out yawn escaped Cornix as a human form, his- or her, he couldn't really tell- flesh rotten off with nothing but scraps of clothing left, moaned horribly and shuffled towards him. "Gah, this is just gross," he muttered before cutting it down. _

_Of course, this was a world where humanity was nearly dead because of some kind of zombie pathogen. Which was surprisingly common for some reason. Felt like he encountered one world full of some kind of zombie or another every couple of years or so, and for all he knew that was an accurate estimation. _

_At least they worlds like this were always the quickest ones to kill. He didn't feel his motivation being curbed._

* * *

Insomnia had taken him slightly longer than the rest. No doubt due to its large size, population, its defense force powered up with similar magic to what that Ardyn fellow had, and its decent technology.

None of it helped all that much of course seeing as they all still died. But it had at least bought them some slight amount of time.

All that was left was the kingdom's castle in the middle of the city- which was really more a pair of skyscrapers with a connected base, but he wasn't one to be picky with naming structures he was going to tear down in a few minutes.

The last royal guard hit the marbled flooring with a dying scream as Cornix slowly walked into the grand throne room. Up ahead was the throne to this whole kingdom, where a man with a leg brace that Cornix assumed was the king stood protectively in front of a frightened black-haired child who stared wide-eyed at Cornix in horror. Behind them and above the throne, embedded into the wall, was a large dark crystal. One side near the top was broken and exposed, revealing brightly-glowing blue geodes within it.

"Finally. Sorry it took me so long. Kinda had a roundabout trip coming here." The king of a now-dead kingdom sternly glared at Cornix with eyes full of hate and tears, though this went unnoticed by the World Reaper as he sauntered closer to the pair and gestured to the room around him. "Snazzy pad you got here." He pointed up. "That the oh-so-sacred crystal everybody and their mother keeps prayin' to before I kill 'em? Lemme ask you something: would everyone have died if I shattered it? 'Cause if so I probably should have just started here. Coulda saved a helluva lotta time, I'll tell you that for free."

The king said nothing, and wordlessly dozens of weapons appeared in a flash of blue and floated around him and the boy behind him.

"Seriously? You got nothing for me?" Cornix asked. "Look, I know I just killed your whole kingdom and everything, but the least you could do is..." He paused, and a weary sigh left his throat as he looked down and shook his head. "Yeah, I can't keep this fuckin' mask up to save my life," he mumbled before looking up to stare the king in the eyes. "Sorry about that, I just... I'm running out of ways to keep myself sane here."

"I doubt a monster like you had any sanity to begin with." It was the first words spoken to him by the king. There was no end to the contempt on every single word.

"You're probably right," Cornix agreed before hoisting his sword on his shoulders. "So this is it? Just you and your absurd amount of swords? You realize you two are the only humans left in the world. Even if you win- you ain't winning- you got nothing left." His fingers twitch as he lifted the sword, and the teeth along it rotated. "So can you please just save me two seconds here and just give up? I kill gods, so what the hell do you think a king can do against me?"

The king stepped forwards. Cornix could almost feel the raw determination bleeding off the man in waves as he slowly stomped towards him with his weapons floating menacingly around him. "Kings don't bow. Especially to the likes of you." Even more weapons appeared, and a blue aura slowly started to grow over his body. The very flooring he stood on began cracking from the raw energy his body was exhuming. Right behind him, the crystal was glowing brightly. "Even if I've failed to save my world, I can at least avenge it by killing the one responsible."

If it weren't for the fact Cornix knew he would win, the gray-haired man would have found all his will to fight drained from him right there and then. That was just from the mere effect of the king's voice. And it was in that second Cornix found himself respecting the man approaching him.

Unfortunate that he would die within the next minute.

"Guess you wouldn't be a good king if you didn't at least try," Cornix sighed as he matched the king's footsteps and approached him. "I know there's no way you'll accept my apology, but I'm really sorry for all of this."

"You're right. I don't accept it."

* * *

_Most of the time the worlds he sent to didn't deserve what he was going to do. _

_These kinds of worlds, while varying widely in technology, magic or not, ect., had various degrees and happiness and wrongness, and generally speaking they were going by finely. Then he dropped by and ruined everybody's day. _

_And sometimes there would be an individual or individuals who tried to stop him. People always tried to stop him, most of the time whole armies, but there was sometimes exceptional people that tried. People who, on their own or with the help of friends, got further in fighting him than any other large fighting force ever had. These individuals methods of combat always varied wildly and went in accordance with the rules set by that specific world, but over the years he'd found many commonalities between these individuals the more he fought them: they were always exceptionally stronger than everybody else in the world. They always had powers either different than everybody else or were just that far above them. They... sometimes dressed way flashier than everyone else in a really distinct matter, which Cornix honestly found odd but didn't look that far into. And a good eighty percent of the time they shouted something about teamwork or the bonds of love or friendship or the inexhaustible willpower of humanity or something like that._

_It never helped them in the end, but he had to wonder how right they were when these people got further than anybody else ever did. _

_Right now he was fighting a group of these exceptional people- though it was really down to one more fighter, as he'd defeated the rest. And for whatever reason it was a group of dubiously-aged girls in strange outfits that, for whatever reason, had enough power to barrel down entire cities if they really wanted to._

_For some reason this kind of thing was kind of common, too. He blamed the Creator._

_"I swear to the bastards that made me if you don't get outta my way..." Cornix growled, the grip on his sword tightening as he stared at the woman in front of him. "You can throw all the time-stopping tricks and dimensional-jail traps and spacial manipulation bullshit you want at me, but I'm getting in there whether you want me to or not." _

_The girl panted heavily, her face covered in disheveled hair and clothes ripped as she struggled to stay on her feet. She held fast, though, and held the staff in her hand to the side as she stood between him and his objective: the big, green, spherical structure right behind her. "You can't. You can't!" she screamed at him. "Don't you know what will happen if you activate it!? You'll kill everyone in the world!"_

_Cornix didn't know the exact details about that building. Some ancient weapon of mass destruction that could cause mass extinction throughout the world. He'd heard about it so he wanted to use it. Wasn't something he always did, but when the opportunity presented itself he sometimes jumped at it. Wiping the entire world out instantly in one fell swoop was surely quicker and much more merciful than him running around and systematically stabbing everyone. _

_He thought so, at least._

_"I know exactly what will happen. That's why I'm doing this," Cornix responded. "If you feel so strongly about it, try nuking me with another energy ball from your little stick there. Won't do jack but piss me off more, but hey, maybe it'll make you feel better right before I stick this sword through your sternum."_

_There was only one person left between him and his objective, with a field of corpses in similar attire to the final woman littering the field around them. He wasn't too surprised that she was refusing to give up. Exceptional people like her almost never gave up to people like him from what he'd seen. It only made his job all the harder._

_"You won't..." Blood leaked out of the corner of the girl's mouth, and Cornix was fairly certain one of her lungs were collapsed, but her fiery eyes still shined brightly as she looked right into his eyes while holding her metal staff out to the side. "I will not let you continue forwards! Not if it means humanity's extinction! I won't let you__!"_

_The staff flared to life and shone out all sorts of colors, from various blues and reds to greens and yellows. Even some shades of purples if one were to look closely. Circles filled with runes written in an eldritch language that meant less than nothing to Cornix appeared all around her. In response, Cornix had burst forwards in a way that made it appear he was less running on the ground and more gliding on top of it. _

_The woman grit her teeth, and thousands upon thousands of translucent barriers appeared between her and Cornix. Cornix's movement wasn't inhibited in the slightest as his sword cut through and smashed all the barriers. She let out a panicked gasp upon seeing this, and the staff glowed again as an assortment of glowing bolts of magic and glowing missiles left the staff and flew towards him. He'd dodged most of these, and the others he'd just ran right through without sustaining any damage. The woman's eyes had only grown more determined at this, and she'd raised her staff and began chanting something as dirt and other rubble around her began to rise in the air._

_Whatever spell she was warming up was abruptly cut off when he'd arrived and had roughly grabbed her entire face while raising his sword up._

Shclick!

_"And you're done," Cornix whispered as he slid the woman's body off of his sword. He'd lunged forwards and stabbed her so fast she hadn't even realized what had happened before she hit the ground. Seeing as his blade had cut her spinal column in two, there wasn't anything she could have done but stare aimlessly as life left her body as Cornix stepped away._

_"You monster..." He froze mid-step in shock, and whirled around. The girl who should have been dead or paralyzed was getting back up. "I won't give up. No matter what, I won't quit...!"_

_So he'd stabbed her again. But she either had some kind of healing magic or an indomitable will, because she kept getting up again._

_"Stop it..." She coughed blood out from her mouth and weakly rose the staff up as the light it emitted began to flicker. "Please, you can't. You'll kill everyone! Just... please, just stop. I'm begging y-"_

_He stabbed her again._

_And again._

_And again until he'd lost his nerve and had slashed at her so viciously he'd split every single one of her cells in two. She didn't rise from that._

_And soon enough, another world died._

* * *

Shattering that crystal had unleashed a wrath upon Cornix in the form of a building-sized man in lion-esque armor who wanted nothing more than Cornix dead. The resulting battle had turned the ruins of Insomnia into a crater; barely any structures were left standing, and anything else was either completely obliterated or buried under the dirt.

But, as expected, the fight had a predictable outcome.

"What is it with this world and throwing magic swords?" Cornix wondered to himself as he walked up the body of Bahamut. The last god of this world lied in the center of the crater that was once Insomnia. His armor was cracked almost all over and pale, brightly-glowing ichor leaked out from his wounds. The dying god let out a low, baritone groat that rumbled the air around him as the eyes peeking out from behind his helmet trailed a completely unharmed Cornix as he made a stop on his chest- right above his heart. "Anyways, this is it. Once you're dead my work here is done."

"You..." A fit of violent coughs assaulted Bahamut, though he quickly composed himself. "You are... unnatural. A creature such as you, something that can bring this much destruction, should not exist. How can this be? How could you have defeated me?"

"I kill gods for a living, Bahamut. You ain't nothin' special by my standards." Cornix shook his head. "And the people who made me? The ones who sent me here? They're above divinity. But I don't have anything to do with that. I'm just the monster they sick on other worlds."

"Why?" Bahamut asked. "What could have warranted such aggression against a world that had nothing to do with your own?"

The famous question. Why? Why do this? Why kill everyone? Understandably everyone always asked that. Cornix supposed he couldn't blame him. It was the sensible thing to ask, especially when your doom was just some guy dressed in gray rags with a sword. Perhaps in some effort to make sense of all the chaos he caused, or to just sate their curiosity of why. He supposed he'd want to know, too, if he were on the opposite end of the situation.

Usually, though, he didn't bother. Partly because his answer never comforted those that asked, mostly because it didn't matter since they were gonna die. But at the moment a whim passed him, and, seeing as he was almost finished, Cornix decided to indulge the dying god.

"The metal." When Bahamut remained silent, Cornix elaborated. "This world has a lot of rare minerals and precious ores here that my world wants to harvest. They sent me to clear the surface out first so they can safely strip-mine the planet." He tilted his head and rested his sword against his shoulder. "That's it. That's the whole reason I've just wiped an entire planet of life. Pretty pathetic, huh?"

Large eyes that had been regarding Cornix since he began speaking shifted in uncertainty, and then slowly settled when their owner realized that Cornix was speaking the truth and realized the gravity of why he had done what he had done. And then, as those eyes filled with sorrow, they closed for the last time.

And then Cornix thrust his sword right into his heart.

* * *

_And sometimes, above all, Cornix just needed a break from it all. _

_Sure, the intermissions in the tower with Mikail between worlds helped. Were practically necessary, really. But once in awhile it wasn't enough and, when he was sent to a particularly nice world, he didn't go right into the slaughter. No, he would find somewhere relaxing and just sit down for a while and think. Relax. Sometimes it was in a nice little village, other times he just wandered around sprawling cities to see the sights._

_Right now he was just at a coffee shop. Soft jazz was playing in the background, people were milling about in the sidewalks, and cars were flying up in the sky above him by the hundreds. Not the most relaxing setting he'd ever been in, but it was good enough for his tastes. _

_He hard giggling nearby, and his eyes wandered to some children who were near the street and pointing forwards excitedly. There was a parade going on with a very orderly group of soldiers and drummer boys marching down the street. In the middle of the parade were great flatbed trucks carrying thirty-foot, human-shaped machines with various colors and gun attachments on their bodies. _

_"Oh, this world has mechas," Cornix mumbled. "That's cool, I guess. Was getting boring anyways." He made the movement to get up out of his seat, but then groaned and sat back down. "Yeah, no, I'll get to it in a day or two."_

_Technically he could take as long as he wanted before the kill gene executed him in four years, though he rarely ever took any longer than a week on average, with the exception of a few notable worlds taking exceptionally longer. And time moved differently depending on how far universes were away from one another, so his time away from the Black Iron Coalition varied from their perspective. Part of the reason why his meetings with Mikail were so infrequent, as they never took on worlds together. To that end, they never had any idea if he was dragging his feet or not. So he would take as long as he pleased._

_"Eh... maybe I'll take another week. Saw a nice arcade on the way here."_

* * *

If there was one thing he never got used to, it was the unsettling quiet that always permeated the air whenever he finished a world off. No talking, no laughing, no crying, no screaming, nothing. Just dead silence all around and the wind. In this case dead silence was taken a bit literally.

He'd situated himself atop a mountaintop and stared out to the vast, dead land he'd just created. In time the completely empty scenery before him would be packed to the brim with craters, mining machines, collections towers, smelting facilities, and ships to ferry all the supplies back to the Black Iron Coalition's world. Afterwards it would all be disassembled, packed up, and transported back. By then the world would be an empty, unrecognizable mass of unwanted matter.

As it was with every world cleared out by a World Reaper.

He'd been up there for hours, staring across the barren wasteland he'd just created in still silence, when he heard a sound behind him that caused his ears to perk up. The soft warbling sound of the fabric of space tearing right apart. The sound he heard every time a portal to a new world was made.

The sound came, and then came again after a few seconds when it closed. He heard the sound of fine shoes stepping on the cold mountain stone, and Cornix briefly wondered who it was behind him before he heard a deep laugh.

That laugh caused his eyes to widen slightly and his heart rate to spike.

"Oh ho ho..." Cornix immediately snapped his head behind him to look at the person laughing at him. A tall, pale man in a fine, black suit. Sharp features, a completely bald head, and pointed ears. An amused smirk played along his mouth as his crimson eyes regarded Cornix with amusement. "Cornix. Fancy meeting you here." He gazed past Cornix's sitting form and at the dead world below them. "Have I just caught you coming off work? Fine work as always, I must say."

The World Reaper narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "... Ogre." He slowly rose up to his feet, and then scoffed when he met the other's eyes. "Well, if it isn't the Destructor of the multiverse himself," he said in a mocking tone before lazily bowing down. "To what does a lowly maggot like me owe to be visited by such an illustrious individual such as you, O Great One?"

He sounded carefree, but in actuality he was terrified. The man in front of him had almost killed him the last time they'd talked. And the only reason he _didn't _was, on Cornix's assumption, because of a passing whim.

"No need to be so afraid." The thing in front of him didn't even seem to notice his mocking gestures, nor was he even looking directly at his eyes at the moment. More towards the center of Cornix's chest. "I don't see why you're so scared. My own physical strength and abilities pale in comparison to your own."

"Doesn't count for much when you got that power inside you," Cornix dryly commented. He straightened his posture, scoffed, and looked to the side in an effort to avoid Ogre's gaze. "The power to destroy whole universes with little more than a thought. A power that lets you manipulate time, space, and who knows what else. You barely being physically stronger than a normal human doesn't really mean all that much when you have all that." He paused. "Sometimes I wish you'd do your job for once and use that power on the Black Iron World and end it already."

"Now where would the fun be in doing that?" The gray-haired male flinched when Ogre was suddenly at his side, laying a hand on his shoulder while gesturing to the ground below them. "Observing humanity in all its highs and lows is my favorite pastime. And why waste my time destroying dead worlds when it's completely unnecessary?" His grin widened. "Besides. I've made entertainment for myself over the eons, but the work of the Black Iron Coalition and its World Reapers has been my most favorite viewing yet."

Cornix hissed and shrugged Ogre's hand off. "Yeah, glad everyone's suffering is givin' you a good show."

Nothing exceeded his hate for the Black Iron Coalition. Some things came close, though. The second he discovered Ogre's existence and talked to him the first time, though, he found that the Destructor was a close second. Ironically, not for everything he'd done, but for everything he wouldn't do.

"Yes, it has been a rather exciting show." His large grin lowered slightly. "Unfortunately, my sister isn't nearly as amused as I am."

"Really? Can't imagine why the Creator would be so upset over the fact that one of the worlds she made is killing off her other worlds." Cornix rolled his eyes. "Surprised she hasn't asked you to burn them to nothing yet."

"Oh, she did. Multiple times. I always refused since I wasn't interested." Cornix opened his mouth to retort, but Ogre continued. "But things have changed, and now she doesn't want the world destroyed. On the contrary, she wants it for herself."

Cornix's mouth remained opened, and then closed following his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "She wants... what?"

"Yes. I wish I could say it surprised me, too, but... well, you don't know her." Ogre's face turned into once that Cornix would have never thought he'd see: a troubled one. It was only there for a second, but it soon morphed back into its default appearance of a smirking face. "But, I cannot say more on that matter without divulging certain details that I would be more than happy to make you privy to on one condition."

His body disappeared and reappeared in a showing of black and red smoke, and Cornix found himself at the end of a hand extended towards him in an open fashion. He looked up from the hand to see Ogre looking at him with an expectant look.

"I want to make a deal with you," he said. "Make a deal with me, and I will tell you everything."

"A deal?" An incredulous snort went out of Cornix's mouth, and he regarded the offered hand for all of five nanoseconds before slapping it away. "Pfft. Hell no. I've heard the stories. I know what happens to people who accept your deals. Not about to let myself suffer through some twisted game for your amusement." He turned his back to the Destructor. "Get bent. I'm out of here."

He didn't actually have to walk away considering he could summon the portal from anywhere with his wrist device, but showing the devil behind him his back and denying his, while a small amount of gratification, was better than nothing. A small victory, but he scarcely ever had those.

But then Ogre had to go and open his mouth. "Even if my deal involves both your freedom and Mikail's freedom?"

Cornix halted. He blankly stared ahead, swore under his breath, and, against his better judgement, turned around to face Ogre once more. He had to wonder if the wide smile he wore was a sign he was making a grave mistake.

"Alright... I'm listening."


	2. Chapter 2

**Anomaly: Origin Point**

**Part 2/2**

* * *

**"The Zealous Cardinal"**

* * *

Plenty of universes had gods. Some- like the universe the Black Iron World had been born in- didn't, and were thus ruled purely by scientific rules. Others had objects of cosmic power, sapient beings who existed in different plains of existence within those universes, or individuals with extraordinary power over everyone else in that universe who weren't gods. There were lots of examples, but they varied so much that it would take an exceedingly large amount of time to list them all.

But, regardless of who or where, these gods, objects, people, or lack thereof, could only operate within the universes they were created in. They could only operate under the rules of that corresponding universe. Universes were never meant to intermingle with one another, and for all intents and purposes weren't even supposed to know all these worlds existed next to each other outside of scientific theory.

The Black Iron Coalition was a glaring exception to this rule, and the fact that the one exception chose to go around murdering other worlds for resources and technology gave credence to why this rule existed in the first place.

There were two other exceptions besides the Black Iron Coalition, however, and those were the Creator and the Destructor.

Creator was rather self-explanatory. She, along with the Destructor, was the first thing to ever exist inside an infinite expanse of black void and nothingness. And with seemingly infinite power controlled by mere thought she'd made a universe. A, admittedly, rather small one. Her own personal world to live in: the Center of Creation.

And then, she began making universes, or made empty spaces and made gods to make those universes. Why she did what she did was anybody's guess, as she never, _ever_, interacted with any of her creations to the point that the Black Iron Coalition was the only thing in the entire multiverse besides the Destructor that knew she existed. So it was since the beginning of time, and so it was a multiverse was formed with each world having been created by her.

The Destructor was her exact inverse; he destroyed. More than that, though, in the same way the Creator had infinite creative potential, he, Ogre, had infinite destructive potential, to the point that not only worlds, but basic _concepts _could be destroyed with mere thought and a flex of his power depending on what universe he was in. Matter, time, laws of physics, whatever he chose to do whatever he wanted to. Along with that were other... _unnatural _abilities only ever whispered about in the Black Iron Coalition.

His purpose was that he was _supposed _to destroy worlds that had died. From what Cornix knew, Ogre quit doing that because he grew bored. He usually spent his time going from world to world, observing humans or using his power to make situations he would put various people in for his own amusement. Like some all-powerful game master plucking random people into games of his own design or a director putting people into his own theater troupe just to see the results.

How did Cornix know all this? Well, Ogre had straight up told him to his face. And he'd been smiling, too. In fact he always smiled.

See, the Black Iron Coalition found out about these two purely by accident. They'd stumbled upon the Center of Creation by pure mistake, which had alerted Ogre who had come to see them out of pure curiosity, which, of course, was all well before Cornix's time. He'd been questioned, he'd answered who he and what his sister was, and then he left, because he found the whole concept of the Black Iron Coalition incredibly amusing and wanted to watch them from a distance.

Well, of course the Black Iron Coalition wasn't comfortable with the idea that two Gods were just out there in the multiverse. So naturally they wanted to kill them.

First they'd tried to gun for the Creator. That had failed right off the bat, as the Center of Creation was in a place not even reachable by the machine that allowed them to traverse to any other universe they wanted. In the end, the leaders of the Black Iron Coalition decided this may have been for the best, as if she died, and they had no way to contain her power, eventually all the universes would die on their own with now way to create more.

Ogre was a different story, as he didn't reside in some unreachable place and instead was in universes they could travel to. So, when they'd finally managed to track him to a universe, they had sent hundreds of thousands of the current generation of World Reapers at the time to go and kill him.

They'd all lasted in the time it took to blink. The only thing even left was the singed body of a World Reaper he'd tossed back in the Black Iron World with a note attach to him. "Use more effort next time" had been scrawled on the note in fine cursive writing.

And so began the odd grudge match between the Black Iron Coalition and Ogre, the latter of which treated it less as a grudge match and more of a game he partook in sometimes. Whenever a new generation of World Reapers were created and proved to be successful, a select number was chosen to attack Ogre. But no matter how more powerful they were compared to the previous generation, they never managed to lay even a single hit on Ogre before he killed them.

Even Cornix himself had been sent to try and kill Ogre when he'd been around thirty years old. He, too, had failed, though he had managed to land a single punch on Ogre's face. It was very likely that was the only reason Ogre had let him win. Cornix, riddled with wounds that were quickly healing and kneeling on the ground, had looked completely dumbfounded when Ogre had looked down at him, smiled, and offered a seat next to a nearby rock so they could talk. All because Ogre had said he'd found Cornix "interesting" at the time.

So they sat. They chatted, mostly about what Ogre did in his spare time. In return Cornix had talked about some of the more interesting worlds he'd been to and what the people there acted like before and after he began his genocide. And then they'd parted ways, with Ogre leaving with a satisfied sense of curiosity and Cornix with his skin crawling.

That had been the only time they had ever interacted. Until now, when Ogre had offered Cornix a deal. A deal he almost knew he was going to regret making. But he was too desperate to refuse. So here they were, walking through a translucent hallway where the walls were rushing coronas of energy with streams of stars passing by as they walked forwards. A "transitioning point" from the world they'd just left to the Center of Creation via a portal Ogre had made. Because of course being the Destructor meant he could briefly destroy the barriers between worlds and cross them freely.

He'd be a terrible Destructor if he couldn't, really.

"I must say, knowing what you know about me, it's intriguing you would even consider striking a deal with me," Ogre had stated in a cheeky tone as the pair walked forwards. "I admit I wasn't certain you would say yes. In fact, were I a betting sort, I would have pined you for saying no. You must truly be desperate if you're actually going to me for help." He turned his bald head to Cornix. "If you hate the Black Iron Coaltion so much, why not just kill them and be done with it? Why go to me for an escape?"

Cornix let out a heavy breath, his hands tucked in the pockets of his frayed, gray coat and his eyes locked forwards. "When we were being incubated, a gene was put inside me and Mikail," he began. "That gene will kill us in four years unless we are given suppressants, in which case we're functionally immortal. The only people who can create that suppressant is the eggheads in the World Reaper R&D labs back home. They all die, we both die down the line." His eyes narrowed. "It's a... redundancy policy. A way to control us and make sure we don't ever go rogue or run away. A failsafe in case one of us disobeys and the other either fails to kill the first or just refuses to do so."

"But four years is plenty of time to kill everyone in the Black Iron World," Ogre mused. "You could both be martyrs. The ones who destroyed the cruel, oppressive regime that has taken countless worlds all for the sake of preserving themselves. Surely that would be preferable to a life of servitude which, in your case, could very well be until the end of time."

"Oh, believe me. The thought comes to mind more than I'd care to admit." He paused. "Actually, on second thought, I practically have no shame at this point. I think about it a good five times a day. Ish." He sighed. "But, Mikail doesn't want to do that."

Ogre tilted his head to the side in interest. "Oh?"

"Yeah, he's got this grand dream of his," Cornix airily replied. "Guy wants to be some inter-dimensional superhero or something. He doesn't just want to stop the Black Iron Coalition from wrecking the multiverse- he wants to spend the rest of his immortal life using everything they've harvested from the backs of all those dead worlds to help the more... unfortunate worlds. To repent, I suppose. For everything we've been forced to take." He shrugged. "I personally think it's a waste of time, but it's his choice. And since he's the last vestige of sanity I have left in my life, I made a stupid promise to myself to help him reach that dream. So no. I can't just go gung-ho and kill everyone without a solid plan."

"Hm." A pale hand pointed forwards. "We've arrived."

The two remained silent afterwards as they approached the other end of the tunnel. Walking through was as simple as walking through an ordinary, open doorway, and Cornix's eyes immediately adjusted to the new environment as Ogre closed the portal behind them.

The Center of Creation was little more than a large rock island floating in the middle of the void of the multiverse. If one were to look up they would see dots of light faintly visible in the far reaches of the blackness: the lights of whole other universes. How the rock island itself was completely illuminated, however, remained a mystery, as none of those lights were anywhere close enough to provide any actual illumination.

As for the island itself, the outer edges were mainly bare while the rest was covered in a thick, light-blue grass that reflected the light that came down from _somewhere _with a bright, white sheen. And at the very center was a large, intricate castle with large, stone steps leading right up to the main entrance. The castle itself was a pure white color and seemed not to be made of stone, but a luminescent crystal that almost hurt Cornix's eyes to look at. Which in itself was an impressive feat, as he could stare directly at a star and not suffer any damage to his eyes.

Ogre began ascending those steps with Cornix in tow, who glowered up at the castle with a look of complete contempt as it grew closer to them. "So this is where God lives," he mused. "I get to punch her when I see her, right?"

An amused chuckle escaped from the Destructor. "You seem to harbor great animosity for my sister."

"She made the world that created my shit-show of a life, along with a whole slew of other fucked-up worlds I personally had to visit and exterminate. I deserve at least one solid hit." He caught up to Ogre's side and shook his shoulder. "C'mon, man, just one. Just to get it out of my system." Because if this deal with Ogre fell through, and if he failed to escape this life or at least ensure Mikail escaped, he wanted the slightest bit of vindication for his efforts so it all wasn't in vain. He wouldn't die happy, but he would die just that much easier knowing he caused the one he ultimately held responsible for all of this the slightest bit of pain.

"You may find doing that a bit difficult," Ogre informed. "You see, as the Creator, she is able to create entire worlds and gods to shape those worlds if she so chooses. That includes the Center of Creation, as well as her own... personal dimension. One she inhabits every second of her life." He paused and made a circle with his hands. "It's akin to a... bubble, of sorts, that protects her from absolutely everything. Why, I suspect that _I_, with my power that rivals her, may be the only thing in the whole multiverse that could possibly break that bubble. So I'm afraid you hitting her may only result in you injuring your hand. But by all means, go ahead and try anyways. I'd relish the opportunity to see what face she makes."

Cornix scoffed. "I think I'm good." There went that plan. It seems he couldn't even have that little a thing. Multiverse truly did hate him, and now that he thought on it, that was probably deserving considering everything he'd done.

They entered through the main entrance of the castle, and Cornix was surprised to find that the interior was practically hollow. The entirety was one single, giant room that was flat save for a crystal staircase in the center that lead up to a raised, flat platform at the top that was about a good quarter size of the entire surface area of the ground floor. And on top of that flat platform was her.

She was similar to Ogre in a lot of ways, but also quite different. Pale with pointed ears and bald, but unlike his crimson eyes, she had a soft blue pair, and unlike his black business suit, she wore a white one. And while Ogre appeared middle-aged, she looked relatively young. Maybe around ten to thirteen, as her features were relatively young and she stood at a solid five feet.

The mere act of just seeing her sent Cornix into a rage and caused him to burst forwards. She let out a startled "Eep!" and huddled backwards when Cornix's foot impacted an invisible, spherical barrier, and her head tilted up to see the enraged face leering down at her.

"If this fuckin' bubble wasn't in the way I woulda kicked your ass six ways from Sunday," he growled out. "But lucky for you, it is here." He lowered his foot down to the floor. "Anyways, wassup? I'm Cornix."

She blinked heavily a few times, and then stared owlishly at him before her eyes wandered to the tall, pale man standing behind him with a bemused smirk on his face. Her look of shock melted into one of annoyance as she sighed and crossed her arms. "Is this the one you told me about, dear brother?" she asked. Her voice sounded about as young as she looked, and hearing it somehow managed to make Cornix even more angrier. "You didn't tell me he would be so... brash."

"Please forgive him, Oni," Ogre said with a small chuckle. "You see, he's had a rather difficult life."

"Understatement of my life. And you-" He pointed to Oni, "- you haven't seen brash." After saying this, he lowered himself and sat down on the ground next to her. "Alright, so you guys dragged me out to literally the middle of nowhere. Start talking."

The ironically small girl frowned in his direction, glanced quickly at Ogre, who was hanging back in the distance, and then looked back at Cornix. "You know," she started, "I would have imagined that if one were to come face-to-face with their maker-"

"You didn't make me. Some asshat in a lab coat made me," Cornix interrupted.

"_Regardless_, I feel that some respect-"

"Of which I have none for you."

"LISTEN." If her attempt was to sound intimidating by raising her voice, Cornix felt none of it. In fact, he had to hold back from snickering when he heard her high voice raise a few octaves in what surely would have been a scream if she hadn't held herself back. "This is my world you are sitting in right now. I may not have ownership of any world I create due to my lacking any and all destructive power, they are all still _my _creations, and therefor, you, along with everything else in this multiverse, belongs to me." Her eyes narrowed threateningly at him, which just caused him to scoff and lower his head. "If you do not adjust your attitude, any dealings between us is done. Is that clear?"

Cornix's face remained blank, but then a small smile stretched across his face. "Bitch, you have nothing on me," he said, and though his hair was blocking his eyes from the way his head was bowed, he could practically _fell _stress lines appear on her face. "You said it yourself: you can make anything you want, but the power to actually _hurt _something lies with your brother. And he's the one I'm dealing with, not you." His head tilted back to the Destructor in question. "And he's not gonna do anything to stop me. He's having the time of his life over there just listening to this conversation."

He wasn't lying, either. Ogre was standing back there with the biggest, amused grin he'd ever seen on anybody. The fact he was having fun with this whole ordeal had no doubt upset his sister based on the affronted look on her face, but she managed to take a deep breath and composed herself as both her and Cornix faced each other once more.

Maybe he couldn't hit her, but if he could see that look on her face at least once, he'd call it good.

"Cornix. I know a lot about you," she said. "You've destroyed so many of my worlds. Killed so many people and creatures and gods. For what? For them? For the ones you serve?"

"Yeah. Maybe you shouldn't have made a world capable of creating technology that could go to other worlds." Cornix shook his head. "The hell were you thinking with that one?"

"The creation of that world has been a rather unfortunate mistake of mine. My greatest, in fact," she admitted. "Worlds remain separate for a reason, Cornix, and that reason is that each world operates under its own... rule system, so to speak. Its own laws and own systems. And while they work perfectly well within each world, those laws and systems mixing with one another leads to chaos as none of those systems are meant to ever interact with other systems. The balance is disrupted." She pointed to him. "You yourself are a prime example. Something able to freely cross into other worlds, with said worlds having absolutely no defense against you because of your overwhelming strength. A creature born from a most unfortunate world."

The World Reaper hummed. "Black Iron Legion wasn't exactly born that strong, lady. You know how much technology they stole from worlds we World Reapers conquered? I don't even want to think about where half of my DNA came from." He looked down at himself and raised his arms with a sigh. "Just a... fucking hodgepodge of stolen genes and cybernetic augmentations and whatever else they did to me that they took from however many worlds with advanced bio-tech." He looked back up at her. "So no, I'm not natural. Not even by unnatural standards, because I've been to worlds with clones or androids or weird magic golemns or whatever. They're more than average compared to me and the other World Reaper they have right now."

"My point exactly," Oni agreed. "Your fate, as well as the fate of every single world that has been pillaged by you World Reapers, was a terrible tragedy that should have been avoided. Alas, you hit the proverbial nail on the head, as it were."

She rose her hands to her face, and white energy coalesced and swirled in-between her fingers. She watched on, and as the energy faded she sighed and lowered her hands to her lap.

"I have very little physical strength of my own. I'm not my brother. I can't just... destroy anything I desire. I can only create, and even then only on a macro scale. Some... small amenities, such as this defensive barrier, can be made, but nothing quite as powerful as him or one of you World Reapers. And for a majority of my eternal life, I had been satisfied with this. The worlds I created, you see, had managed to sort each other out. I was content.

"And then your world came to be. They began invading other worlds, killing them and harvesting them for everything they were worth. My brother, who has always interacted independent of me, refused to help. There was nothing I could do to stop them. And it was at that moment that I realized, for all the power I possessed, I was truly powerless." She paused, and took a deep breath. "This is where we have ended up. Me, the supreme God of all who cannot even stop one single world. You, a slave to the very same world. We share a common enemy."

"I know it's not that simple." Cornix leaned back while maintaining eye contact with Oni. "Ogre said you _wanted _that world. Not have it destroyed, that you _wanted _it. So you didn't bring me here to ask that it be killed- 'cause lady, if I could, I would have killed them all loooong time ago." He leaned back forwards and crossed his arms. "So what's the deal? What do you want and what do you want me to do about it? And more importantly what do I get out of it?"

She hummed a small lilt while closing her eyes, and then opened them once more with a small smile. "The fact of the matter is that this isn't the first time universes have managed to intersect, so to speak. Once in awhile there is always one person is some world or some small group of people who somehow get a hold of the power needed to travel. Like all things, they eventually go away. The form of power they grasp is spent or those people die or the objects they use break. They never created catastrophe's that ruined whole worlds. The Black Iron Coalition is different in that they are completely self-sustaining through the harvest of other worlds. And what if another situation like this comes up? Where some other world finds a way to travel to other worlds and severely harm them for their own gain?"

"You know, there's a really easy way to prevent that. _Stop fucking making worlds that can do that_." An exasperation sigh left Cornix. "I mean, you're God. _The _God. You can't just... just rig the system so another world with universe-traversal abilities doesn't pop up every once in awhile?"

To his confusion, she shook her head. "It's hard to describe for someone like you to comprehend. I can only create basic frameworks. What those worlds grow into afterwards is completely up to them. Unless I have a clear idea, my influence is... extremely limited." The way her face scrunched up almost made it look like she was pained to admit it. Cornix assumed it was a real bad hit to her pride, if she even had such a thing. He found himself not caring. "So no. I cannot prevent these instances from happening. I can, however, stop them from spiraling into chaos the likes of the Black Iron Coalition."

At that, Cornix let out a bemused laugh. "Oh, really? And how's that?"

"On my own, I have no power. The Black Iron Coalition, through their World Reapers, have demonstrated they have power to subjugate any world they wish." Her head tilted upwards, and her smile spread as her arms began to spread out. "It's my vision, you see. A divine force that exists to protect all worlds against those who would use the ability to travel between worlds and hurt those who cannot protect themselves. I wish to protect my multiverse, Cornix. I wish to use your Black Iron World to do it."

And it was there the final blocks clicked in for Cornix. She wanted the Black Iron World because there was no other world that was capable of churning out mass-produced soldiers like him and Mikail. Because they had power, and she, ironically, didn't.

The worse part was that he could see it happening. If it were Mikail here instead of him, he would have jumped at the first opportunity. What she was spouting was practically his dream made reality. Who was to say other World Reapers born wouldn't follow his lead? Especially if they were born into a world where God told them they were holy warriors or some nonsense and that their purpose was to use their power to protect other worlds? Or even worse, if Mikail told them all this assuming more World Reapers were brought up.

Mikail.

Cornix had to suppress a groan. He would have to tell him of all this for sure. And he knew Mikail enough to know that, yes, he was going to completely devote himself to Oni if she came to him with this offer. It was practically her handing him his dream on a silver platter, and after all these years Mikail was extremely desperate for an out. _Cornix _was desperate for an out.

But he just didn't trust this thing in front of him. This creature under the guise of a girl. Maybe she hadn't intended for the Black Iron World and its Coalition to exist, and maybe she really did want to make her multiverse a better place. But it was the fact that she said "her multiverse" that had him on edge. That and the fact that she was the direct brother to Ogre, and he trusted that thing the least out of everything.

_"'Her multiverse' she says. Technically true, I guess, but... gah, I don't like the way she says that," _he thought. _"I just met her. She technically hasn't given me a reason not to trust her, other than the whole holier-than-thou kind of attitude she's got going on. Met plenty of people like that in my travels, right before I killed them. Never once liked them. Mad kings and tyrants and the like, but... is she any different? Because she's the Creator? She... kind of seems sincere. I just don't know." _He leaned back and glanced at Ogre. _"The fact she's related to that guy doesn't help. Then again, she hasn't lied once as far as I know.__"_

He tilted his head down. _"Whether I trust her or not doesn't really matter, though, does it? I need my out. She's offering me an out. Because if her plan is to conquer the whole Black Iron World and stop all this- this culling they've been doing for so long? That's an out. My _only _out." _His face tightened as his shoulders began to shake. _"I've tried for so long and looked so hard, but no matter what I think of or what world I'm sent to I'm never able to find anything that can get me out of this situation. I promised him. I promised Mikail I'd get us out of this! So I can't just ignore this, not when an opportunity like this'll likely never come up ever again. _

_"So... damn it all. I don't want to. Something about this just doesn't... maybe she's being legit. I don't know. But I can't afford to say no. I have to. For every single world the Black Iron Coalition ever plans on hurting. For Mikail." _

He lowered his head further, and exhaled heavily. For sure damned if he didn't. If he did? Hopefully it would work out, but really all he could do in that regard is throw the dice and hope it all works out for the best. And in all likelihood, it would. He knew for sure that he would feel more comfortable if she wasn't involved in it all.

But, whatever the case, anything was better than the current status quo. So he'd take a chance.

He raised his head, and saw her looking at him expectantly. "So you wanna, what, have me and Mikail murder all the government and industrial leaders in the Black Iron World?"

Oni tilted her head to the side. "Mikail. The other World Reaper you mentioned?" she questioned.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Then... no, not merely them. Everyone." Cornix's eyes widened, while her smile grew. "Yes. I understand you and Mikail were unwilling pawns in this terrible system they've created. But everyone else in that world: the leaders and scientists who created you, the soldiers who guard that world, and the citizens who live in it? Everyone? None have ever opposed the cruel regime the Black Iron Legion created. They are all guilty of the grave sin the world has committed. Death, you see, is the only punishment fitting for all of them." She interlocked her fingers together in her lap. "And as it is, I only desire a few things in that world. The warriors bred to invade other worlds with utter impunity and without consequence. The technology for those warriors to travel from worlds to enact my will and protect the multiverse. The actual world itself to house them and myself, as I plan on overseeing all of this. Everything else is... merely inconsequential."

_"Aaaaand, there it is. She's batshit crazy and wants to kill a whole world." _Cornix frowned. _"But this is the Black Iron World we're talking about. I would have done something like that. Mikail, too. The fact she's willing to do it doesn't paint a really good picture, though. Especially since she's being so casual about it- killing a whole world." _He shook his head. _"Fuck, deal with it, Cornix. You need this." _

"Couple of problems with that plan," Cornix began. "One is that me and Mikail have a genetic trait that kills us in four years. It's a... compliance reassurance they put in us. They make a kind of medicine, suppressors, that we take so that the gene can never affect us as long as we take it, but we don't know how to replicate it; we're killers, not scientists. Which brings me to my second point: you want us to kill everyone, including the scientists, doctors, and researchers. I'm fine for all that, and so will Mikail, but what'll that leave us with? We don't know how to make the suppressants. We don't know how to grow more World Reapers. Hell, we don't even know how the universe traversal tech works. We just hit a button on our watches and the engineer techs on the other side do the rest."

The Creator nodded in understanding. "I see your concerns. You needn't worry about your... compliance gene. Ogre, my brother, can take care of that. As for the rest, you don't have to worry. I'll figure it out."

"..." Cornix pursed his lips. "... You'll figure it out," he repeated.

"Yes, that's correct." Her smile turned into a leering once as she leaned in on him. "You don't seem to appreciate the scientific intricacies being the Creator entails. It takes more than mere thought and power to create what I do. As long as the actual, functioning technology, as well as the appropriate logs and so forth, are spared in your cleansing, all should be well. I can easily figure it out."

"That's a lot to ask for. You're asking me to bank on faith in your ability here."

"And you have no faith in me?"

"Absolutely zero, no."

Oni frowned heavily at this, but then lightly chuckled and shook her head. "Well, you'll just have to trust me. Think of it like this: even should I fail in creating my army on my own, the Black Iron Coalition will still be destroyed and you and Mikail will still be free. And I rest easy knowing, at the very least, their ilk will not plague my multiverse any more. Even in the worst case scenario, you still win."

As much as it begrudged him to admit it, she had a point. He didn't care one way or another, as long as he got his freedom. Mikail might a little, but considering everything else, that dream of his was secondary considering the aforementioned freedom.

"Alright. Alright, fine, Oni." Groaning, Cornix rose up to his feet and regarded her with a cautious glare. "So... me and Mikail kill the Black Iron Coalition. You move from this place to that world, and use the universe traversal tech and World Reaper tech to make your... army of goody-goodyness or whatever so you can quote-unquote 'protect your multiverse', and in exchange we get freedom whether or not you manage to pull that off. That about right?"

"Close, but no." Hearing Ogre's sultry voice right next to his ear as an arm draped over his shoulder sent Cornix on edge, but knowing who it was, he managed to keep his nerves in check as Ogre regarded him with playful red eyes. "You see, we wish to deal with the two of you separately. I wish to set terms for you, while my sister wishes to set terms for your dear friend Mikail. It is only after you two accept our terms do we carry this pact out."

"Tch." Of course it would be too much to ask for this to be as easy as that. Of course there were gonna be strings, and knowing Ogre, Cornix would hate them. But he was too desperate to say no. "Fine. I'd have to bring Mikail in on this anyways. Me and Ogre will talk, and then Ogre can send Mikail here to talk to you. We can get the show started after."

The Creator nodded in satisfaction. "That is fair enough." She waved him away. "Be off, then. I'll be waiting."

So they'd left. Ogre seemed to be in high spirits as they descended the stairs leading out of the castle. Cornix was significantly more dour, but the small flicker of hope in his heart was about the only thing keeping him moving forwards. The hope that he could finally be free of this mess. It would certainly be a lot brighter if he didn't know he'd be having to make a deal with the worst person to make a deal with.

"No need to look so down, Cornix." A low, baritone chuckle left Ogre as they two finally made it to the bottom of the steps. Ogre hopped up and sat down on a nearby rock while Cornix stood in front of him. "We hash out some terms and before you know it the Black Iron Coalition will be ancient history."

"Yeah. Right." His eyes glanced back at the castle, and then to Ogre. "Your sister's full of it. You know that?"

"Oh, yes. She's quite mad." The nonchalance of that statement was so unsurprising to Cornix that his face didn't budge at all. This only seemed to amuse Ogre. "You have no idea how frustrated she is at the situation. Day in and day out she would beg me to solve the problem. You've no idea how much she loathes my power that rivals her." She wistfully sighed and looked up at the dark sky. "But this is just so much more fun. So... _interesting_. You see, she legitimately believes she should have sovereign rule over all worlds that she created. And in truth, I don't know what she will choose to utilize this army of World Reapers for. Perhaps she'll keep her word and use to it police the multiverse from any who would traverse the borders between worlds. It wouldn't be that much of a stretch; she's always ruled at a distance and let worlds sort themselves out.

Or maybe she'll abuse this invincible army's power and use to to assert a dogmatic regime across the multiverse. Honestly, though, I rather doubt she would go that far. She's much too... passive for something like that. She'd rather keep on making worlds for her to watch and observe and make sure nothing like what is happening happens. So I wouldn't worry too much." He slung one leg over another and interlocked his fingers. "It will be interesting to see either way. And at the end of the day that's all I really care about."

Cornix rolled his eyes. "Ah-huh. What do you want with me, then?"

Ogre paused. For a second, a solemn look crossed his face, though the ever-infuriating smirk returned. "Simply put, I want you to have a child."

A beat.

Some thoughts went through the World Reaper's head. They turned blank, and his face scrunched up in confusion before he sputtered and looked up at Ogre. "What? You're serious?" Ogre's face didn't change. "You're serious," he realized. "Why the hell...? Man, why?"

"I've grown a bit bored," he simply stated. "I interfere in the lives of people for my own amusement, you know this. I've never... actively manipulated things quite heavily, especially to someone at birth. I wish to change this and take a more active approach to my normal methods. To watch over a child at birth. To give him some nudges and shoves here and there. Observe." He rested his cheek in his palm. "I know of a woman who lives in a simple enough world. Standard Earth setting, lives alone in a forest. She desires companionship above all else, and if you were to go to her as a poor and lost soul, she'd care for you without question. Continue being kind to her, marriage is a forgone conclusion. Hence, a child. One I will watch from behind the scenes and interact with as I see fit."

Emotions that were mixtures of confusion and horror flashed across Cornix's face. He physically reeled back and raised a hand to his forehead to steady himself as the full implications of what he was asking came down on him. "You... you're seriously asking me to have a kid with some random woman so you can creep on my child their whole life?" he asked. "That's... that's seriously fucked, Ogre. You-"

"Am I to assume you are saying no?" Ogre questioned. "No to the one person who can free you?"

_"God fucking..." _A low growl hummed in the back of Cornix's throat, but he held down his violent tendencies enough to keep his voice steady. "You know this kill gene of mine is a dominant hereditary trait," he said. "It's a last resort to make sure World Reapers don't go off somewhere and spawn a rebellion full of little World Reaper bastards. Kid'll die when he hits four. Even if he lives from that..." He looked down and dryly chuckled. "Yeah, there're a lot of bits in me that aren't exactly traits that can be transferred, but he'd still be pretty damn strong nonetheless."

Ogre casually waved a hand. Almost as if they weren't talking about one of those most morbid things Cornix had the misfortune of being a part of. "Being the Destructor affords me many uses with my abilities," he reminded. "While I can't use it on myself much- I'm quite fragile, believe it or not- I can use it extensively on others. I can simply use Destruction to remove that nasty kill gene of yours from the child while in the womb. I can get rid of other traits as well to ensure the child will be born human. Or as close as possible, at the very least." He clicked his tongue. "I understand your generation of World Reapers have extremely high intelligence, though you're unable to act on it much seeing as most of your work involves killing. Perhaps I'll leave that particular trait in. See what happens when that intellect flourishes."

Shaking his head, Cornix exhaled heavily and blinked his eyes. "Okay, yeah, sure, fine. Whatever, man. So that's how you're gonna deal with our kill genes? You're just gonna take it out of Mikail and I?"

"Hmm. I'll remove it from Mikail. I will remove it from your child. I will not remove it from you."

It took a few seconds for those words to register fully with Cornix. Once they did, anger began to swell up within him and his mouth creased into a snarl. "Oh, now I _know _you're fucking with me," he hissed. "You wanna at least tell me why you're actively trying to kill me here by leaving the gene in?"

"You don't think a tale of a child growing up with a father who died before his death is tragic?" Ogre asked him. "It's all for the sake of molding the child's beginning. Something I came up with on a whim, really." He leered down at Cornix. "And besides. Without that gene, you're immortal. This world I'm sending you to is full of average, ordinary humans. I can't have something like you around for too long."

"Then fake my death," Cornix plead in a low murmur. "Just send me away or something before he's born so I don't have to be there. You really gotta kill me for a fucked-up whim?"

"Oh, I think a story of a father dying of 'natural causes' is much more tragic and believable then him just leaving without a trace. And faking the death of someone of your caliber would be rather difficult. Besides-" Cornix blinked, and Ogre had gone from being on the rock to standing right besides him, caressing his chin, "- it's what I want. And you're in no position to argue."

Cornix batted the finger away with an infuriated huff, though his slumped shoulders and resigned face said enough. "I feel like this is just you getting back at me for landing a hit on you when we first met," he whispered with a defeated chuckle. "But whatever. If... as long as you don't touch Mikail, it's fine. I don't care as long as he lives."

"That's for my sister to decide, though I believe she has plans for him. His dream may yet be realized, if it will put you at ease." It only did so a little bit, but it was just enough to put Cornix at ease. If just barely. "And really. You truly think I would be that petty?"

"Yep." Lethargically, he pointed his finger to the side. "Wanna drop me off back at that world I killed so I can call home and go get Mikail? I'd rather get this show over with as soon as possible."

Ogre nodded. "Of course." As he said so, a hole ripped open in the space right besides them. Cornix's portal back to the empty world he'd made. "You don't want a ride back to the Black Iron World?"

"It'll look suspicious as hell if I go back there directly without having them transport me, so I gotta make two trips," Cornix answered. He too a single step forwards, then stopped. "Of, 'fore I forget." He reached into his jacket, rummaged around a bit, and then grabbed and object and held it up: a black hat. "Catch, cue ball."

He tossed the hat to Ogre, who caught it and inspected it with interest. This continued for a few seconds until he raised his eyes slightly and cast a questioning look at Cornix.

"I got that hat off a guy named Ardyn," Cornix answered. "Was gonna bring it back as a souvenir, but figured that shiny head of yours needed covering." He grinned, snapped, and made finger-guns that pointed at Ogre. "It's evil and tacky, just like you."

"Evil, hm?" Ogre murmured. "You really think I'm evil?"

"I'd say yeah, but if I looked in a mirror I'd see a huge hypocrite." He sighed, turned around, and stomped towards the portal. "You got a deal, Ogre. Just be sure to get that portal ready for when Mikail gets on board."

And without any further words, Cornix went right through the portal. Ogre stared after him, and then gave an interested hum as he looked down at the hat in his hands. The vague thought of perhaps adopting headware to his wardrobe passed through his mind as the portal in front of him closed.

* * *

There wasn't many times Mikail had to put a lot of thought towards things.

This wasn't to say he wasn't intelligent. Quite the opposite, the genes afforded to his generation of World Reapers made him a veritable genius. But, as it was with his unfortunate life, the only times he ever got the time to actually utilize this intelligence was during his times conversing with Cornix and playing games with him. At every other point in his life it was just a repeatable, mundane cycle of fight and kill, over and over for years.

It was an unbearable act he had to fight himself to commit every single time he did it. He didn't know how Cornix managed to do the same work as he did and always come back to Mikail with a smile on his face no matter the situation. One of his more endearing qualities, really, and one of the reasons why he cherished the other World Reaper so much. He was someone he could look forwards to after his bloody work was done. His comrade. His friend- the only friend he would likely ever have.

And really, the knowledge there was another to share his pain with and his dream that seemed more and more out of reach by the day were about the only things keeping him going these days. The knowledge that he could die and end it all was tempting, but knowing that another World Reaper would be grown in his place to continue his work, and worse, that he would be leaving Cornix alone, had always stayed his hand. And above even those two things was his aforementioned dream of atoning for all the wrong he'd been forced to commit.

But he was no closer to achieving this dream than he was when he first told it to Cornix so long ago. So here he stood in the same large balcony they'd played their games in and he'd discussed his dream at from all the way back then. His face set in a stoic frown as he blankly gazed at the city that filled the ground all the way to the horizon. At the broken sky and moon. At this world that ruined itself and ruined others just to sustain itself.

How tired he grew of it all. It wasn't any wonder he barely ever thought when nothing ever changed.

"There you are. Geez, man, been looking everywhere for you." Mikail's ears perked up, and he turned around to see his fellow World Reaper shuffling onto the balcony. "Solemn as ever, I see."

"Cornix." Mikail smiled, and he felt his heart rest just a little easier. He looked down, and he saw in Cornix's hands not only his own sword, but a smaller, shiner sword. And strangely enough the blade was jutting out of what seemed to be an engine. "Er, Cornix..." He pointed to the strange sword. "What is that?"

Sitting down at the very same glass table the always played their games in, Cornix cast a glance down at the engine blade. "Souvenir I picked up from the last world. Looked cool," he said. "Was gonna take a hat, but I lost it." He grinned and pointed the strange sword at Mikail. "And, with any luck, it'll be my last souvenir."

Quirking and eyebrow, Mikail made his way towards the seat opposite of Cornix. "And why would that be," he asked as he pulled a seat and sat down. "Has your room finally been filled to the brim with your knick-knacks and you have to stop hoarding artifacts just to move around?"

A light laugh came from Cornix. "No, not at all." Smiling, he shook his head and set his swords down. "So, I talked with God."

"Ah, the world you just came from had some?" Mikail inquired. "I imagine they weren't much of a struggle for you as per usual?"

"N- well, no, they weren't- no, Mikail. When I say God, I mean _God _God." Cornix quickly raised his eyebrows twice. "Hint. Take the hint."

Mikail lowered his crimson eyes in thought and clicked his tongue, but tried as he might, Cornix's words still confused him. "I'm afraid I just don't follow," he confessed. "Could you be more specific?"

"I talked to the Creator."

"... Oh," Mikail muttered, surprise evident on his face as the blonde cleared his throat. "I can't imagine why they would have given you an audience. I would have assumed they would hate World Reapers like us."

"With a burning passion," Cornix agreed, "but she hates this world way more than us." He sighed, and leaned back in his chair. "I'll cut right to the chase, buddy. She's offering us a deal out of this mess."

He'd never quite felt anything like the shock that went through his body before in his life after hearing Cornix's words. Even his own birth and the slow realization of what his life was to be was less jarring than this news. He had to take a shuddering breath to calm himself and, to ensure that this wasn't some cruel joke his friend was playing on him, searched his face for any sign of deceit.

But no matter how hard he looked, there was none to be seen. In face, it was quite the opposite, as Cornix looked more serious than Mikail had ever seen him in his entire life. So, the blonde World Reaper steadied his breathing, folded his hands across his lap, and looked the gray-haired World Reaper dead in the eye.

"If this is a joke, Cornix-"

"Not a joke." He shook his head. "I'm being legit. Need you to hop over to the Center of Creation to hash out terms with her."

"I..." There were about a million and one questions overwhelming his mind, but Mikail managed to hold his own thoughts down so he could think comprehensively and ask what he considered were the more important ones. "Only her? Not the Destructor?"

At that, Cornix's face soured. "He's acting as a mediator between us. That said, the terms of that was that I make a deal with him while you make a deal with her." He waved his hand and gestured to the city around them. "In short, she wants everyone in this world dead, but the universe traversal tech and World Reaper tech left intact. She wants to breed her own invincible army to police the multiverse so if anything else that can freely travel from one world to another pops up a Black Iron Coalition situation doesn't happen again."

"I see." The words sunk in, and slowly Mikail nodded his head. "What's to become of us after?"

"You? Dunno. Me?" Cornix paused and shifted in his seat uncomfortably. "Eh, don't worry about it. Just talk to her, okay?"

After finishing, Cornix had raised his right hand and snapped his fingers. The instant the snapping sound had reached Mikail's ears, a portal had opened right besides them. It had been so sudden than Mikail was startled, though he quickly calmed down and stared right at the portal before looking back to Cornix.

"What are you waiting for? Ya want freedom or not?" Cornix stuck his thumb towards the portal. "Quit thinking so hard about it and get going. I'll be here when you get back."

And so he did.

* * *

Walking through the portal had been a short affair. Being granted sight to the large, crystalline castle at the other end had been another thing entirely. In his travels he'd seen some wondrous sights, and while, even with the castle in mind, he couldn't quite pin down the most splendid sight he'd ever seen, the castle was definitely up there.

Seeing the Creator herself had simply been perplexing. He'd walked up the steps, and they'd locked eyes almost immediately. She'd softly smiled and gestured for him to sit on the ground next to her, to which Mikail obliged.

She was... much warmer than he would have assumed she would be. From Cornix's words he would have expected nothing but scorn towards him, but the way she talked was nothing if not warm and caring.

And what things she did talk about.

Cornix hadn't done her intentions justice at all. The more she spoke of her plan- of the freedom of the two World Reapers and the subjugation of the Black Iron World- Mikail became completely _enraptured _more and more for every single word that passed her lips. Words that he'd wanted to hear practically his whole life. But even more was her plan to enforce the multiverse to ensure nothing like the Black Iron Coalition would ever happen again.

It was everything he had every wanted. He just couldn't understand why she wanted to tell _him _of all people about it. He, who had ruined so many of her worlds. Who deserved her ire just as much as the Black Iron Coalition did. He felt honored, to be sure. He just didn't think he deserved it.

"Er... if I may," Mikail had spoken just as she finished saying her words. She stopped and looked at him with a peculiar glance, and then nodded to signal for him to continue. That gesture alone was full of so much kindness he knew he didn't deserve, so he bowed his head both as a sign of respect and so he wouldn't have to look her in the eyes. "I understand you need Cornix and I to exterminate the Black Iron Coalition. I understand this completely. I just..." He paused to find the right words. "I just don't... why would...?"

"Why would I tell you all of this when I simply could have had my brother tell you it all along with Cornix? Why did I request your audience specifically?"

He was too frozen with confusion to nod an affirmative. There was a small breath, and Mikail felt his body flinch in fear when to small, dainty hands cupped his cheeks and gingerly lifted his head to meet the Creator's eyes.

"Oh, Mikail. You poor child," she soothed. "I don't blame you and Cornix for all the terrible things you've done in your life. The only fault is in the hands of the ones who forced you."

"I... but..."

"Would they have not just made more World Reapers in your place if you refused?" she asked. "The worlds you destroyed would have been destroyed one way or another, by your hands or by another's. _That _is on the hands of the Black Iron Coalition, Mikail, not you."

Such words of reassurance had never been said to him before. Cornix all his life had tried, but hearing them from her, the Creator, of all people put in a true sense of truth in the words. As if the words themselves were lifting a great weight off from his shoulders. He would have given his eternal thanks for that alone if she hadn't continued.

"But, I can see it in your eyes. You seek atonement for all the wrong you think you've done your whole life. You wish to protect the multiverse to prevent tragedies such as this, just as I do. We are kindred spirits, you and I."

"I-I don't deserve-"

"Hush, now. The truth, Mikail, is that... I cannot do this on my own. I need help, with more than just claiming the Black Iron World." She slowly began to stroke one side of his face with one hand while the other continued to cup his cheek. "Even once we've finished, it'll just be me there. And when I raise more World Reapers to my cause- though we really will have to change that name- I admit that I will need... guidance, in order to set them straight. I wouldn't know what to do with them otherwise. You though, Mikail, are you. You're strong, well traveled... experience." She giggled a small lilt. "In truth, I wish for you to stay with me and be my right hand. To help me rule and lead our golden army so that we can protect this multiverse." Her hand stopped moving. "That is what you want, yes?"

Pulses of white light slowly wafted off of her fingers and traveled along Mikail's face. His widened, enthralled eyes didn't even notice when the blonde color of his long hair slowly wavered, and bled from a vibrant yellow to a deep red color with black streaks running through it. Too focused was he on the girl's words and intentions that he couldn't have cared less about the sudden change of his hair's color.

"After all, even I of all people need a cardinal," she continued. "So that is what I offer. The choice is yours, however. Once we've killed them all, your freedom is yours to do with as you please. I only give you the offer to serve under me." She slowly began to remove her hands. "Though I will completely understand if you wish to do something else with your newly-acquired freedom."

Mikail stirred to life as the Creator's hands slowly pulled away. "Wait!" he cried out and reached out to grasp her hands. "I... I want to," he breathed out.

She blinked, but allowed Mikail to continue to hold her hands. "Oh?"

"I..." Were there even words he could say that would accurately portray how he felt? He didn't think so. No matter how hard he searched, he just couldn't find what to say. The myriad of emotions going through him were so vibrant and wild that he couldn't come close to describing what it is that he felt. So, instead of doing so, he merely stated his own desires. "I would do anything you would ask of me... my lord," he stated. "I would owe everything to you should this vision of yours come to light. If all that you ask in return for my freedom and the realization of this dream is to remain at your side, than I will do so. I will do anything you ask of me."

He bowed his head, and though he couldn't see it, the Creator's motherly smile widened even more.

"Very good... Mikail. My very own cardinal."

* * *

"What's takin' him so long?" Hadn't been that long since Mikail left through the portal- about forty minutes- but Cornix was growing anxious. It wasn't especially likely that a guard or someone else would wander up here and see the portal, as the two were known to frequent this spot and, after having done it for decades now, wasn't too out of place. There was always the chance one of the building's workers could just happen to walk by and see it, though.

Then again, when Mikail got back they were gonna kill everybody anyways, so maybe it wasn't that big a deal.

It almost made him anxious, waiting for the moment to finally happen. The anticipation alone was killing him, and he found himself tapping the tip of his sword on the ground over and over as impatience flowed through him. The very same people that had created him and forced him to ruin so many lives would die today. Tonight? Hard to tell without a sun. But either way, they were all going to die and he would finally be free of this mess as soon as Mikail got back.

Well, as much freedom as this fucked-up deal of his allowed at any rate.

He heard the portal warble behind him in a whirling warble, and turned around. "Oh, hey, finally... whoa. Dude, what happened to your hair?"

It was definitely Mikail that stepped out from the other side of the portal. He remembered him having blonde hair, though. Not the deep red locks with black streaks that was currently resting atop his head. Something different with his eyes, too. Still the same shade of red, but they had a different look to them. Almost dazed, but at the same time focused right on Cornix.

Cornix himself wasn't too sure of that look.

"My hair?" His voice sounding a bit quiet, Mikail raised a hand to inspect a lock of his hair. "Ah. She must have done that to me," he said. "To be completely honest, I... think it suits me, actually."

"Never was much for red, but hey. Long as you like it." With a groan, he rose up from the chair and kicked it to the ground behind him and hefted his sword onto his back. "So. What'd the she-devil have to say to you?" he asked.

"Creator."

"... Huh?"

"The Creator," Mikail slowly repeated. There was an edge to his voice that managed to put Cornix off, and a small scowl had even settled on his face. "I would prefer if you would refer to her as her proper title and not some derogatory nickname you made for her, Cornix. I know it's a bad habit of yours, but please."

Cornix blinked, but when he realized that the other World Reaper was actually serious, he breathed out a single quiet laugh and shook his head. "Yeah, sure man. Whatever. What'd the Creator have to say to you?"

Mikail's features instantly relaxed, and a small, pleasant smile rested on his face. "She offered me a place at her side," he answered. "Once we've cleansed this world of the Black Iron Coalition, we will ensure the multiverse is completely safe once and for all." He paused, and then looked down at his feet. "It's... all I ever wanted," he continued, "and were it not for you opening a dialogue between the two of us-"

"Nope. Nope nope nope. Don't even start that." In an instant Cornix was at Mikail's side and was wrapping an arm around the startled male's shoulders. "Look, don't stress too much about it, Mikail. I want out as much as you do. I just jumped at the first opportunity, and here we are." He smiled and poked Mikail on the nose. "Sooo... just consider this a really selfish act from me that you happen to benefit from too and we'll call it even, huh?"

"Um. S-sure," Mikail stuttered. He stared after Cornix as he pulled away, but then shot his hand forwards to grab Cornix's wrist and stop him. "Wait, Cornix. I told you what the Creator offered me, but what deal did you have to make with the Destructor?"

"Told ya not to worry about it, man." Cornix pulled his wrist from Mikail's grasp, spun his sword once around, and pointed it at the city below them. "Now then! We got out there an army of one of, if not the, most technologically advanced human armies ever to grace this multiverse, and right below us a building full of assholes. Thirty in particular along with a bunch of scientists. So... I say we start with this building and divide the upper and lower hemispheres between us." He looked back at Mikail. "What do you say?"

"..." The red-haired World Reaper looked down to the floor, and paused to think on the other's words. "... I will need to retrieve my sword first," he said after a long moment. "And... you know the leader with the bald head and curly mustache?"

"That really pretentious guy that spit on your shoes that one time a few years ago?"

Mikail nodded. "I'll let you kill the other twenty-nine if I can have that one."

"Ooh, you drive a hard bargain." The two turned towards the door and began to quickly walk forwards into the building. Both of their shoulders began to tense and large grins began growing across their faces. "But sure. Why not? I'll give you that since it's our last job."

* * *

It had taken two whole weeks to kill every single human being in the Black Iron World, which in itself marked the end of the Black Iron Coalition.

All said, it was a rather impressive amount of time to last. Between the World Reapers, they rarely ever encountered a world that took them to destroy in that amount of time. And that was with one, single World Reaper, let alone the two of them. Factor in the fact that they had killed everyone with more zest than they'd ever had in their entire life, and it was a wonder the world had lasted longer than a single day.

But it was to be expected that they wouldn't go down without a fight. To be sure, they didn't stand any chance at all whatsoever, but the Coalition hadn't made it this far without a lack of trying. With all the technology they'd stolen from other worlds, the whole planetary defensive force could have conquered other worlds themselves if it weren't more efficient to have World Reapers do it for them.

Cornix would never in his life admit it since he hated them all so much, but seeing them last so long had the faintest possibility of spawning the smallest, most minute iota of respect somewhere inside of himself. Probably. At least he was pretty sure it was in there somewhere. If he was honest with himself he didn't really feel all that motivated to go rooting around for it.

"Man, we really wrecked this place," He muttered to himself. The day after the last human died, the pair of World Reapers, no worse for wear, had found themselves going back to the tower they were born in to wait. They could have waited anywhere, really, but funnily enough that tower was the only place in the whole world they were comfortable waiting in. Specifically, the balcony they always played their games in.

That and because most of the rest of the planet was little more than rubble.

Cornix could see it as he looked down, with the once shining black city being reduced to complete ruin. There was hardly a single intact building, with large, mountain-sized ships and vehicles visible on the horizon and in pieces. Seeing it now he realized that the two may have been a bit _too _excited in their extermination of this world, but he couldn't find it in himself to care too much. The catharsis of finally seeing the Black Iron Coalition dead and the knowledge he would never have to do something like this again more than made up for it. And besides, it was just more work for the Creator to clean up since she would be moving into this world. One last bit of spite he could throw on her.

Worth it all the way.

"So. You've done it." Cornix, who had been leaning on the railing and looking at the destroyed world in front of him, didn't even flinch when the tall, pale, and darkly-dressed Destroyer stepped right next to him and adopted the same leaning pose on the railing. "How do you feel?"

"Like a million bucks," Cornix drawled out. "If you could turn time backwards I'd ask you to go back a bit so we could do it again." He turned around so his back was leaning on the railing, crossed his arms, and glanced sideways at Ogre. "Time for me to go, then?"

"Mh. Shortly," he said with a nod. "But we've time. My sister is somewhere below in the tower, marveling at all her new toys. Mikail is showing her around, but I told him to make it up here when he could so you two could say your final goodbyes." He smiled. "I'm not heartless, after all."

"I don't believe that for a second."

In response, Ogre chuckled. "Believe what you will." A hole ripped in the space behind the two, with red all around the edge of the portal. "Your final world will be on the other side of that portal," he informed. "When you're ready, feel free to head on through."

Cornix would have made some witty retort, but he'd blinked, and when his lids lifted his exposed eyes had lost all sight of Ogre. He looked around in surprise, but then let out an exhausted sigh.

"Um... Cornix?" He blinked, and then looked past the portal towards the doors leading out of the balcony and into the building. Mikail was standing at those doors, an uncertain look in his eyes. In particular, he was looking back and forth between the open portal near Cornix and Cornix himself, before settling on Cornix. "You... you're going."

It wasn't a question of statement, but one of fact. The small amount of hurt he heard in his voice didn't ease Cornix in the slightest, nor did Mikail shuffling closer to him. Ever since he'd made this deal he'd been regretting this moment. Regretting it so much that he had decided to pull it off until the very last second until he was forced to confront Mikail with it, because otherwise Cornix didn't think he could do it on his own.

"Yeah," Cornix answered with a resigned sigh. "So... listen. Ogre tell you anything?"

Mikail nodded. "After he removed my kill gene." That made Cornix feel a little better, at least. Knowing that problem was now gone for Mikail. "He said that, as part of a deal you made with him, you had to go somewhere. Where are you going?"

"Just... somewhere," he answered. "In the same way you need to stay with the Creator, I need to go somewhere with the Destroyer. Don't really know where or why. Maybe he just gets really bored and wants a traveling pal or something."

It was a blatant lie, but Cornix knew for a fact Mikail would throw a fit if he knew Ogre was planning to have Cornix die in the near future just to have a child. And Ogre was fickle and whimsical enough to probably destroy Mikail for the trouble. Or worse, do nothing until Cornix died and then turn around and do something to ensure his compliance. But even more than that, Cornix just didn't have it in him to admit to Mikail his kill gene was left in and that he was going to die in four years' time. So a half-baked truth would have to do.

It was better this way, even if Cornix didn't feel like it was.

"So you're not staying with me to help out," Mikail finished. He lowered his head slightly. "I see."

"To be honest, Mikail, this whole 'protector of the multiverse' thing you're going for isn't really my shtick anyways. It was always more your thing," Cornix said after a terse pause between the two. "And I'd just get bored as hell, anyways. But hey! You finally got what you wanted, right?"

"True enough." The red-haired World Reaper's head picked up, and a small smile graced his lips. "The Creator was ecstatic when she saw the labs with the World Reaper technology. She's already pouring over everything. Soon enough she plans on making the first of the World Protectors as soon as possible so I can begin leading them."

"World Protectors, huh?" Cornix mused. "World Protector Mikail the cardinal. Suits ya."

"World Protector Cornix would have suited you as well," Mikail said. He glanced at the portal once more, his smile dipping before looking back at his friend. "Will we ever see each other again? Surely the Creator and Destructor would at least visit once in awhile."

There was a hopeful note to his tone, which hurt Cornix all the more when he shook his head and caused Mikail's shoulders to slump. "I wouldn't count on it," he said, "but I wouldn't worry too much about it. We're free now."

"I know. I'm still a bit disappointed, though. But we do what we must do, I suppose." The two took some steps forwards until they were facing one another directly. "I suppose that this is goodbye, then?"

"Seems so," Cornix said with a nod. It only occurred to him now that this would be the last time he would ever see Mikail's face. A part of him wanted to delay for a few minutes more, but the rational part knew that there would be no point to this. One way or another, he had to go, and relatively soon. He didn't want to risk Ogre growing impatient. "We had a pretty sick ride though, right?"

"I wouldn't call it a ride."

"Mm. Guess so. Your ride's just starting," Cornix said with a small smirk and a pat on the other's shoulders. "You'll do fine. But, try not to make a bigger mess than we already made. Multiverse is messed up enough as it is."

Mikail took a moment to consider his words, and even chuckled a bit at the end. With a sullen smile, he nodded his head. "I won't let you down," he said.

"Great. Oh, one more thing." He reached towards the table near them, on which laid his serrated sword. "Ah, Nevermore. My second most reliable friend." Using the hand not holding the sword, he ran a thumb along the smooth, flat side of the blade. "Here." He tossed it to Mikail, who fumbled with it briefly before getting a stable hold on it. "I won't be needing it anymore," he said, "so I guess you can have it. To, uh... remember me by or something. Or if you really want you can just toss it in my room of junk. It's yours, now; I don't really care."

The male opposite of him stared at him wide-eyed, before he looked down at the sword. "Are you sure?" he asked. "This sword is... it's the one they gave you at birth. You've had it all your life, same as mine."

"And where I'm going it'll be no better than a paperweight," Cornix reiterated. "Don't sweat it." Besides, he felt he had to leave something. And as little as it pained him to part with his room full of memorabilia, he doubted they would offer much significance to Mikail. "Alright. Time for me to go."

He walked over to the portal and put a single foot in. His body leaned halfway into the portal, but then stopped. He exhaled through his nose, and looked back at Mikail one last time. He saw him staring intently at him with his sword clutched tightly in his hands. And with his eyesight it was impossible to miss the tear rolling down his face.

"Goodbye, Cornix," Mikail called after him. "You... were a great friend. The best anybody could ever ask for. Thank you for sticking with me through all this horror, and thank you for helping me out of it. I'll never forget you."

"..." A bitter smile formed on Cornix's face. "Yeah. Same. Seeya around, Mikail." He turned his back to him and began walking deeper into the portal, giving a two-fingered salute on his way out.

And then the portal closed.

* * *

He wasn't really expecting all that much to be on the other side, so when he exited the portal into a forest clearing, he wasn't at all that surprised. According to Ogre, this was one of the more normal worlds, so he didn't have to expect anything too out of the ordinary. And even if it wasn't an average world, even without his sword he didn't have to worry much.

But none of that was on his mind at the moment, as, right when the portal closed behind his back, he collapsed to his knees and let out a wheezy breath as a loud groan left his mouth.

"Aaaaagh... damn it." He exhaled sharply, balled his right hand into a fist, and slammed it on the ground. The trees around him shook as a result, and any nearby animals scattered. "Fucking fuckin' fuck."

This was a new kind of pain. An entire life of emotional battery and growing desensitized to wholesale slaughter was one thing. Watching his closest friend have to suffer the same thing was another. Having lied to his face like that, along with the knowledge that he would never, ever see him again was another thing entirely. He wasn't used to this kind of hurt.

About the only thing keeping him going was the knowledge that, at the very least, Mikail would be fine. He would do his work and live out his dream and make sure the multiverse wouldn't fall down and collapse. It was fine, as long as he was happy. His own absence would hurt him for a time, but Cornix didn't doubt that Mikail would keep himself busy. He'd fade away as a fond memory for Mikail to look back on from time to time eventually and Cornix... well, by then he'd be long dead.

That was the hope, at least. The most reasonable and likely hope Cornix could think of.

Cornix sighed, and then dragged himself up to his feet. If he looked past all the trees in the clearing, in the distance he could see a house. A rather modest house near a stream with a rather large garden full of colorful flowers next to it.

_"Guess that's were the lady I'm supposed to meet is," _Cornix thought as he trudged towards the house. _"Get married, have a kid, die. Pictured myself dying a lot of ways. This wasn't one of them." _

He made his way out of the woods and scanned the yard around him. Save for the garden and a nearby well, it was fairly empty. There was a road nearby that likely lead through the woods into a nearby town. As for the house itself, it was dark inside, though that was probably attributed to the fact that it was daytime and, if the sun said anything, around noon. He _could _hear a single pair of footsteps shuffling around inside the house, so there was somebody in there. Good so far.

The former World Reaper walked up to the wooden house's door, and was about to knock when his hand stilled in the air. _"Wait, how the hell am I supposed to do this?" _he thought. _"I've... I've never even thought about this kind of thing. The hell do I do? Do I just... I just talk to her, right? Ogre said it'll come naturally. Is that how it works? I've never even fallen in love with a girl!" _he mentally screamed. _"Do I even need to fall in love with her? I just gotta have that kid, right? Could I just... no, Cornix, you're not doing that. I'd like to die without having crossed _some _lines. But if I don't have that kid, Ogre'll get mad and Mikail might..." _He grimaced and pulled his hand back. _"Shit, I didn't prepare at all for this. Maybe I should just pull back and think this through. Come up with a plan. Yeah, that sounds good. I'll just-"_

Unfortunately, the multiverse had one single more surprise for him. Either that or Ogre was pulling strings somewhere and having a laugh at his expense. Either way, due to Cornix's befuddlement, he wasn't able to react when the door swung open to reveal a human woman on the other side. Someone tall, full, brown hair and eyes, fine features. She seemed calm at first, but then froze in fright when she saw the stranger standing right outside her door with his hand held up.

"Uh..." It was the only sound Cornix could think to make. He coughed to the side in an awkward manner, and slowly lowered his hand and averted his eyes from her gaze. "So, uh, hey," he greeted.

"Hello," the woman greeted back. She sounded about as nervous as he felt. "What... are you doing here?"

Fair enough question, given the circumstances. "I'm lost," he said, and had to wonder to himself if that was even a lie or not. "Well, I mean, 'lost' kinda implies I'm going somewhere without knowing the way, but I'm not, so..." He coughed again. "Yeah," he finished. "I was just wandering around and saw a house."

The woman gave him a wary, yet, appraising, look. Her eyes remained on his face before going down to his body, where they widened upon seeing his tattered clothing. "What in the world are you wearing?" she mumbled as she reached down and took a hold of some of the gray cloth. "Why... are you wearing these rags, sir?"

"I wouldn't really call them rags," Cornix muttered defensively.

She hummed, looking like she didn't believe him in the slightest. "You said that you had no destination in mind after explaining how you were lost," she said. "Do... you not have a home?"

"Not really," he answered.

"Oh." Cornix couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when he stepped to the side. He grew even more perplexed when she gestured towards the inside of the house. "Then... would you like to come inside?" she offered. "I was just going to go attend to my garden, but you seem like you need the help more at the moment."

Confused, he sent her a questioning glare. All she did in response was continue to stand still and patiently wait for Cornix's answer. So, seeing no better alternative, he accepted the invitation and stepped inside the house.

Maybe this wouldn't be as difficult as he'd imagined.

* * *

It was a surreal experience, getting to witness the birth of his... own kind, supposed he could say. To see the same incubation pods he'd been born in be at work once more after so many years.

_"The very next generation of World Reapers. Protectors," _Mikail had to remind himself. _"They are to protect, not to destroy."_

He didn't remember there being so many pods, though. Where he'd been born, there were only two pods: the ones that had contained himself and Cornix. There were much more in this one, and the room he was in could barely even be called a room. It was so large that, if he were to look left of right, he wouldn't be able to see where the wall ended, and the ceiling, as well, was too high for him to see. And in this room were rows and rows of pods connected to large, kilometer-long shelves that were themselves neatly stacked next to, in front, and behind each other to the point that the whole room was filled.

"It's quite beautiful, isn't it?" His head didn't budge in the slightest as a small pair of footsteps slowly came to a halt right next to him. His eyes, however, did briefly flicked down to the Creator that stood besides him to bask at the sheer amount of pods before them before he, too, went back to looking at the pods. "It took months of work, but we finally managed to get the system back together. It was fortunate that most of this was already set up up for us; it seems in the days of old the Black Iron Coalition used this room to mass-produce World Reapers back when your kind were significantly weaker. They never even bothered to decommission it."

"Why so many?" Mikail asked. "There has to be millions in this room alone. Wouldn't smaller numbers be sufficient?"

"It's not like I'm making an army of yous," the Creator reminded him. "They'll be strong. Strong enough to live up to their old titles of World Reapers and to be able to hold up their new titles of World Protectors. Not nearly as strong as you, though, Mikail. You're special, and I would like to keep it so." She paused to blink her eyes as the sight before them as a small smile settled on her face. "And to protect the multiverse, we must first be able to protect ourselves, Mikail. I envision a golden army to protect this world and deter anybody who would ever threaten our mission. What you see before you-" she gestured to the pods in front of them, "- is merely the means by which I seek to accomplish this." A beat, followed by a wry grin. "And... somebody has to fix all the damage you and Cornix did to the planet months ago."

Mikail nodded. "I see."

"That said..." Oni trailed off, and waited for Mikail to look down at her before she continued. "I have been working on something I think you'll like. A new series of World Protectors that will serve to be a bit more... unique, than all these ones," she said. "But that is still a ways off. But it is my hope that you will work with them directly when the time comes to help protect these worlds of ours. Until then, Mikail, we have much to do."

At that, she turned to the door that lead out from the massive room and walked out. Mikail stared after her for a few seconds, and then sighed heavily and turned back to all the incubation pods. "How I wish you could have stood here with me, Cornix," he whispered to himself. "But it will be fine. This... this can work. I'll make it work." He tensed his shoulders and hardened his glare towards all the pods in front of him. "All that suffering won't have been in vain. I'll protect them all. I swear it."

* * *

All in all, it hadn't been the worst four years of his life. Likely the best if he were to be honest, but the crippling pain he was in had a way of marring the experience thus far.

He'd seen it coming, of course, and had been dreading it for four years. And then one day, about a month ago, he'd just suddenly started feeling wrong. His reflexes seemed to dull, his muscles began to ache, he felt lethargic, and his senses sporadically weakened and went back to normal. His wife kept telling him that, for the first time in the entire time they'd met, he'd just contracted the flu. He knew better, but figured her coming to terms with it on her own over time was perhaps better than him flat-out telling her he was dying.

Probably not his best decision, but it wasn't like he would be around for long to regret it.

Some weeks passed, and his symptoms worsened. She'd desperately wanted to take him into the nearby town to see the doctor, but he'd refused. Partly because he knew there was no point and that nothing in this world could kill him, mainly because he didn't feel like explaining why none of the needles they would use to draw blood samples would pierce him. Superhuman durability wasn't really a thing in this world. He'd rather not freak anybody out.

She'd been quiet. Then there had been some yelling, and then she'd gone really quiet. But she slowly started opening up again, and for the last week of his life Cornix could at least talk to the one person in the whole multiverse, besides Mikail, who didn't make him feel like a waste of space.

"Man..." Sitting upright in his bed, Cornix turned his head to the nearby window to spot the setting sun. He managed to see his haggard appearance, and his now-peculiar dark blue eyes. Eyes whose sclera, in his worsening condition, had darkened to a black color. If he remembered right, it was an unintended side-effect of the kill gene. His wife thought they were creepy. Cornix was in too much pain to really care.

"Is this what being sick feels like?" he muttered to himself. "Or dying? 'Cause this sucks. Really, really sucks."

He heard the door to their room open and shut, and felt the bed under him shift as someone sat next to him. "Are you feeling alright?" a soft voice asked as a slender hand cupped his chin.

"Nah. I'm never alright. Been telling you that since day one." He let his head be tilted to the side so that he could look at the very concerned woman staring at him. "But hey, I always feel better when I'm around you," he said with a weak chuckle.

She pouted in response, though he saw the corners of her mouth lift the slightest amount. "I meant how you're feeling currently," she clarified.

"Oh." Cornix nodded in understanding. "Then no. I'm dying. Doesn't feel the greatest."

"I see." She placed her hands above his and leaned into him, closing her eyes. Cornix blinked slowly as he saw her rest against him, and then leaned back to give her more comfort as he gaze wandered back to the window.

The first year had been the most awkward year of his life. He was homeless, she had a home with room to spare and, as he would learn months later, was extremely lonely. So she'd given him a place to stay in. They'd been rather skittish around each other for that first year, her because she was scared of him, and him because he didn't know what he was doing. A word or two a day turned into a sentence or two a day. Eventually that evolved into full-on conversations. He learned she lived out here alone in this house that was given to her as an inheritance when the last of her family died, and worked as a grocer in town. Eventually he'd gotten the nerve to help her with the garden. In response, she'd showed him to the library in their house and introduced him to her favorite pastime of reading. They became fast friends ever since.

Around year two was when he actually went into the town with her on one of her trips. It wasn't overly large or big, and she was held in fairly well regard there. He himself didn't interact with anybody until he had to stop a car with his bare hands from running over a girl who had fallen in the streets. After that, he couldn't stop people from talking to him if he tried. Even formed a habit of doing odd jobs here and there, which at least amused him for a time now and then. And, of course, when walking home one night, alone, a pack of wolves had decided to try and attack the woman he'd been living with. Consequences of living in a forest. Of course Cornix, all the way at the house, had heard, and of course he'd managed to kick and punch the wolves away. Considering what he was, they didn't stand a chance, and he'd made sure not to kill them to not scar the woman.

That was probably when she started seeing him in a more than favorable light.

Year three, possibly more awkward than year one. The year she tried courting him through all sorts of roundabout ways she'd either read in books or heard from her townie friends. Everything from awkward romantic dinners to even more awkward picnics to extremely awkward advances. Of course Cornix had to accept them eventually, but he'd held off as long as he could to tease her as much as possible, if only because he found it fun to tease her. But eventually they decided to become a couple.

And then, year four. The status quo hadn't really changed all that much, other than that the two friends-turned-lovers spent much more time with each other. Cornix grew more comfortable around her and the quiet, nervous demeanor he'd had all this time turned into the more open, snarky personality he'd always had around Mikail. She noticed and became even warmer near him, and in doing so he, oddly enough, became happy. Early on to year four she had grown so enamored with him that she decided she wanted a child. He, of course, had to agree. A child had been conceived, and life continued on. She'd tend to her garden. Cornix would get games from town to play with her. They'd read or talk about any events going on in town. Once every couple of months go to some festival or another said town was holding. And through it all, Cornix didn't have to kill a single person. It was nice.

Then he started dying. And here they were.

"I never did tell you much about my past," Cornix weakly mumbled. "I had a pretty bad life before coming here. Hated pretty much everything except this one person, but they had to go do their own thing when I left. I... didn't really know what happiness was. I didn't even know if it was something that could be experience. I thought that playing board games with that man was the closest I'd ever get."

The woman leaning against him hummed. "And then you fell in love with me, correct?"

Cornix shook his head. "Nah, not really." He chuckled lowly when she hit him in the chest. "Just kidding," he said. "Nobody besides him treated me with kindness. I didn't think it was possible anybody ever would, considering some... things I'd done. But you did."

"When you say it like that, you make it sound like you would have fallen in love with the first person who treated you decently."

"Probably, yeah. How lucky that you managed to meet me first." Once again, she softly hit him in the shoulder. "I could have wandered right into town and have been snatched away by anybody, really." Another hit. "That said... thanks to all this time you spent with me, I think I finally know what happiness is. So thanks for that."

Maybe it was a bit wrong of him to say this, considering he'd met her with the sole intent of one day impregnating her. "Love" wasn't something that was supposed to factor into it, and really, he didn't even know if what he felt was love or just affection towards a really good friend. Whom he'd impregnated. But, maybe Ogre, right in the end of his tenure with the Black Iron Legion, had felt some amount of pity for his life and really had turned him towards a woman who would love him and he would love back. Even after all these years, Cornix didn't know how he felt with the Destructor.

But, either way, it still felt nice to be around her. And knowing he would soon die and leave her alone... almost hurt him. But he was still unsure if it really was love. It didn't really matter that much to him.

"I wish you wouldn't have to die," She whispered into his neck. "It isn't fair, you leaving us so soon. You won't even get to see our son."

"I tried complaining to my cancer, but I don't think it cares." Slowly, Cornix looked down at her inflated stomach. Still a month or two out, if what she had told him was correct. He really doubted he'd make it that long. Hell, he didn't feel like he'd make it to the end of the week. "I'm sorry for leaving you so soon. You deserved better than me."

"It's okay. It's not your fault."

_"Debatable, really,"_ he thought.

He did wonder what would become of the child. What Ogre would do, and if he'd already messed around with the child yet like he said he would or if he was waiting for Cornix to die off first. Even worse, he didn't know how to feel. He wasn't even that attached to the thing. But she probably was. To her, that child was likely the only connection she would have to him after he finally left.

"I did think of a name, you know," she said. "You never even entertained the idea of naming our child, so I had to go and take the liberty of doing it myself. I hope you don't mind."

He did a little. A part of him wanted to name the child after Mikail, but he'd never got around to mentioning it to her. And seeing as he was leaving her with raising the baby on her own, he supposed the least he could do was let her decide. "That right?" he asked in an airy whisper. "What'd you decide on?"

"Alfred," she answered while stroking her stomach. "What do you think? Cornix?"

"Huh?" He blinked heavily a few times. His eyes were rapidly becoming harder and harder to keep open, and a few moments, they slowly began to fall. "Y-yeah, Alfred. It's a... nice name." His eyes fully closed. "Real nice."

His body began to still, and his skin was growing more cold. Surprisingly, all the pain in his muscles was slowly receding, but so was all other feeling. He didn't mind too terribly. He was too tired to think about it too much.

_"I guess this wasn't the worst way to go. At least he's happy out there, wherever he is." _Cornix's own thoughts began to grow foggier and foggier as his consciousness began to slip. _"I just... wish I could have seen him one last time..." _

That was the last thought Cornix had before he died.

* * *

Decades would pass afterwards. The child was born, had grown up with an unnaturally intellectual mind, and would go on to become a doctor and marry a woman. In doing so he would move in with her to her own estate: a large mansion sequestered in the wilderness. And sometime later they would have their first child.

That child, having only recently been born, was the same infant that Ogre was currently leering at. He watched the small boy with curiosity as it slept in its crib, silent as could be and without movement. It was such a calm infant that, if it weren't for the fact he could see its chest rise and fall with breaths, it could easily be seen as dead.

"Hm. Perhaps I had taken too many of Cornix's traits from Alfred," he muttered to himself as he stared at the baby. "You, my boy, are completely human. Not even the few unnatural traits I left Alfred transferred to you. And while that is completely fine, and while I'm sure watching Alfred and his family will continue to entertain me... I wouldn't mind stimulating things a bit."

At this, the Destroyer reached into the innermost pocket of his suit and pulled something out. In his pale hand small, blue, glowing dot of light that slowly spun in his hand. "The gene that the Black Iron Coalition used to execute their unruly World Reapers," he muttered to himself. "The one I extracted from your father's DNA, all those years ago before he was born. The one he inherited from Cornix." He turned his hand downward, and pressed the light into the infant's body. The speck sunk right through, and the baby shifted slightly as a small whimper left it. "It's yours now. I'm curious to see what will happen, and what Alfred will do in four years when he finds his child dying of an unknown illness."

His work done, he turned to leave. Five steps were made before he stopped, turned around, and gazed at the child's crib. "How amusing that he would choose a name so similar to his," he said to himself. He couldn't help but smirk when his eyes read the name emblazoned on a small plaque on the crib:

_Corvin Drevis_

* * *

"C-R-O... W," the Destroyer muttered to himself as he fiddled with a small lock box. Said box was locked via a combination lock with four wheels on the front with letters on each wheel. He'd finally configured it so that the wheels spelling out the word "crow" would open the box.

On its own, not the most secure thing in the world. Doubly so considering he had stored something of extreme danger and power inside, not just by this world's standards, but by most worlds'. An unrefined version of it, to be sure, but that was hardly of any consequence in the long run. But, he was the only one that would ever know what was in it, and only one other person in the whole multiverse would ever come here to look for it after he would direct that person here.

If he was right, that wouldn't be too long away.

He stored the box away in his pocket and itched at a marking on his neck as he gazed up at the sign above the small store he stood in front of that read _You'll Know It When You See It_. An unassuming-enough name, and a store full so many cheap curious other junk items. Unlikely that anybody would ever to think to look inside considering how barren it looked. All it would require was time.

But these thoughts were shaken from him when a small weight crashed into his legs.

Ogre didn't even stumble, but did look down to see what the disturbance was. He found a small, blonde boy with baggy pants and a blue shirt sitting on the concrete and rubbing at his head with a small grimace.

A small, deep chuckled rumbled out from Ogre's throat. "Do try to watch where you run, young man," he advised with a neutral smile. "Not all adults will be as forgiving as I when small children crash into them."

The small boy opened and blinked his bright-blue eyes up at Ogre. "Oh, geez! I'm super sorry!" With that apology, he quickly rose up to his feet and, in a gesture that slightly surprised Ogre, took his hand and shook it vigorously. "I didn't mean to hit you like that! I just wasn't watching where I was going!"

"It is alright. No harm done." Ogre lowered himself to one knee so he could look at the boy at eye-level. "I don't often find young boys such as yourself running along the streets of Manhattan unsupervised," he noted, "especially when the sun is set to lower soon."

"Hey! I'm not little!" The boy puffed his chest at Ogre and flashed his teeth at him in a wide smile. "I'm fourteen! That's plenty old! And I'll be fifteen pretty soon!"

The next chuckle that came from Ogre was a much lighter one. "Then it seems it is my turn to apologize for being so presumptuous. Do forgive me." He even went as far as to bow his head, which earned him a confused look from the boy. "May I ask for your name, young sir?"

"Um... I'm Jay. Jay Morrow," he answered.

"Jay Morrow," Ogre repeated. "You're here alone?"

Jay shook his head. "Nah, my big sister is looking after me. She was busy doing something, so I... kinda got distracted," he said with a sheepish grin. "Do you live around here?" he asked. "I've never seen you before?"

"Oh, no." Shaking his head, Ogre turned and pointed to the small building behind him. "You see, I've just purchased this property and hope to set up a storefront here," he explained, "so I am relatively new to the area."

"Oh. I get it." Jay nodded his head. "Well, you-"

"JAY!"

The sudden, shrill yell of the young boy's name startled both males, though while Ogre immediately calmed down, Jay was set into a panic. "Oh, man, that's my sister!" He bit his bottom lip and turned his back to Ogre. "She's gonna kill me for running off on my own!" He started jogging away, though he did turn his head around at the Destroyed behind him. "It was nice meeting you, mister, but I need to go!"

Ogre had raised a hand to wave him a farewell, but the boy had already turned his head back forwards as he continued to run. The hand remained outstretched midair, and Ogre's mouth creased into a thin line as a thought came to him. He came to a decision almost instantaneously, and as a result a small, red ball of energy the size of a marble appeared on the tip of his index finger. He flicked the finger towards Jay, and the ball shot forwards and went right through the boy's back and into his body.

An infinitesimally small fragment of his power. So small that it would likely never do anything to make a difference in the boy's life. So it was with most things Ogre did on a whim, and this was precisely what this action was: a whim. Perhaps a careless one, but his time was limited due to recent circumstances. He could afford to be a bit careless with his whims. Perhaps that small bit of power would do something in that boy's future. Perhaps it wouldn't. It was a question Ogre would have to take to his grave, as he wouldn't be around long enough to find out.

"Well, then. That's that." The Destroyed stood back up on his feet and turned to his newly-acquired and soon-to-be-abandoned store. The small lock box was removed from his pocket and was tossed up and down in the air as he gave said box a contemplative look. "Now where to hide you..."


End file.
